


Acedia

by Kuroyuki_Kokuyoku



Series: Sorry, Not Sorry [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Katekyou Hitman Reborn!
Genre: Abandoned Work - Unfinished and Discontinued, Agender!Hadrian, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, BAMF!Hedwig in omakes, Belphegor is the prince of Magical Prussia, Bigender!Lussuria, Cloud Officer!Hadrian, Cloudy Sky!Hadrian, Currently on hiatus but I will eventually return plz don't worry, F/M, Flames and magic are completely different from each other, Fred and George Weasley changed their names to Vardoger and Eidolon Doppelganger, Gen, Genderfluid!Mammon, Hadrian prefers to use "he/his/him" pronouns, Hadrian's Varia codename is Cat Sith, Harry Potter Leaves the Wizarding World, Harry Potter changed his name to Hadrian Temperanza, Hedwig's nickname in the Varia is Empress, Hermione Granger Bashing, Himedere!Hedwig, KHR/HP crossover, LGBTQ Characters, Leimakid has an AMAZING weapon, Luna Lovegood changed her name to Kaguya Tsukihime, Lussuria is Hadrian's Sorella, Lussuria prefers male pronouns but female designations, M/M, Mammon uses "they/theirs/them" pronouns, Manipulative Dumbledore Bashing, Master Chef!Hadrian, Misty Cloud!Eidolon, Misty Lightning!Vardoger, Neville Longbottom changed his name to Leimakid Hyades, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Rainy Forest!Leimakid, Ron Weasley Bashing, Sawada Iemitsu Bashing, Sunny Mist!Kaguya, Wizarding World Bashing, because she made people her bitches, currently rewriting everything, lots of references, shameless plug ins of Shokugeki no Soma dishes, tags will change too, temporary nono bashing, until then enjoy the sneak preview of chapter 16, you can only have one or the other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-22
Updated: 2018-02-08
Packaged: 2018-12-05 07:34:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 46,085
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11573370
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kuroyuki_Kokuyoku/pseuds/Kuroyuki_Kokuyoku
Summary: Acedia (noun): spiritual or mental sloth; apathy. In Latin, it means “without care” or the neglect of to take care of something that one should do. After abandoning the Wizarding World in his Fourth Year, Harry James Potter thought this suited him perfectly. After all…he doesn’t give a damn anymore.UPDATE (9/15/17): Omakes have been moved to Bites of Vainglory. Sorry for the inconvenience.(10/30/17) IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT ON MY FANFICTION.NET PROFILE!!! I'm really sorry to have to do this to all of you...(5/25/18) The first chapter of my revamped version is up! Please come check it out!





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own anything from the franchises, Katekyo Hitman Reborn and Harry Potter.
> 
> Edited (7/22/2017)
> 
> WARNING: Please read the second paragraph of my AN after you’re done with this chapter. If you don’t like the content that will be in the future chapters, don’t say I didn’t warn you if you choose to continue without seeing it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own anything from the franchises, Katekyo Hitman Reborn and Harry Potter.
> 
> WARNING: Please read the second paragraph of my AN after you’re done with this chapter. If you don’t like the content that will be in the future chapters, don’t say I didn’t warn you if you choose to continue without seeing it.
> 
> AN: After reading too many HP/KHR crossover fics, I am jumping into the fray myself. I fell in love with the idea that Harry is a Cloud (or at least a Cloudy Sky in some) and became the Varia’s Cloud Officer some way or another. Another reason for why I want to write this story is because I also want to try my hands at bashing. Up until now, I’ve kept my views on various franchises pretty neutral but this time, I want to try this method out and see how it goes for me.
> 
> Let me just warn you right now before you read any further! I am planning on writing Harry out as an agendered person romantically involved with a man. Since the theme I created for him is “not giving a fuck”, things like socially constructed expectations on gender and sexuality wouldn’t matter to him. To be honest, I’m not too well-versed in this subject, so I’ll be researching heavily on this topic as I continue with this fic. While I’m doing that, please feel free to give me feedback on how I’m doing in portraying Harry this way. And don’t hesitate to call me out if I’m doing something wrong! 
> 
> Edited (7/22/2017)

Everything started on Halloween of his Fourth Year in Hogwarts.

Just one year. Just one calm, peaceful year where the most he had to worry about was passing Potions rather than fearing for his life. Was that too much to ask? Evidently, it was.

After his name was selected by the Goblet of Fire as the Fourth Champion of the Triwizard Tournament, he thought nothing could get worse until he was confronted by his best friend in their dormroom in Gryffindor Tower.

“…So how’d you do it?” Ron said stiffly as he sat on his bed. His blue eyes were locked onto the green-eyed teen and narrowed in suspicion.

“What do you mean?” Harry asked as he slowly got ready for bed.

The taller teen gave him an ugly scowl. “I mean, how’d you trick the Goblet? Did Hermione teach you a spell or maybe you got a Seventh Year to enter for you?”

“I didn’t do anything! Someone just put my name in the Goblet to make sure I’ll be in the tournament!” The shorter dark-haired teen protested.

“Yeah right. So it’s not enough just being the Boy-Who-Lived, eh? You heard Dumbledore. Eternal glory, 1000 Galleons. Which was it that made you want to participate?” The red-haired teen spat out.

The shorter wizard began pleading to the redhead helplessly as he tried to get him to listen. “Ron! Listen to me! I don’t even _want_ to be in the tournament! Someone’s trying to kill me and-”

Ron interrupted him with a disgusted glare. “You know what! I don’t want to hear anymore from you, you traitor. I should’ve seen this coming! Putting me and ‘Mione in danger just for you to get more attention. You betrayed me, Harry. You’re no better than Pettigrew!” The taller teen harshly accused the other.

Harry almost stumbled back as though Ron had slapped him. The redhead’s words hurt him in a way that he never felt before. The wizard felt like drowning or dying. He couldn’t tell which because his chest felt so painfully cold. He wanted to scream and shout at him. He wanted his best friend to realize and understand his situation. But suddenly, he felt something snap in his mind. As if he had just gone through life wearing a pair of foggy glasses and just realized that he needed to clean the lens to see properly, the Boy-Who-Lived suddenly realized everything with a clarity he never knew he had been missing.

“Um…Harry. Are you okay?” Neville asked, snapping him out of his thoughts.

Ignoring the rest of his dormmates, he turned around and went to his bed. “…I see… if that’s how you feel,” the green-eyed brunet simply mumbled almost inaudibly to his best frie- _former friend_ before finally going to sleep.

ʅ(°ヮ°)ʃ

The next morning, Harry Potter’s dormmates found him missing and his bed empty and all his belongings were gone. The only thing left of him was the splintered remains of his Holly and phoenix feather core wand neatly placed on the covers of his bed.

Everyone began to panic as all the staff members of Hogwarts searched high and low for the teen but no trace of him can be found on castle grounds. They even combed through Hogsmeade just to be safe. After a few days, they decided to leave the matter alone. The boy will show up eventually. After all, where else can Harry Potter go? The young wizard is magically bound to appear participate in the Triwizard Tournament lest he lose his magic.

But as the date of the First Task drew closer and closer, the professors began to get more and more worried. Rumors and speculations spread rapidly as Rita Skeeter eagerly wrote article after article on the possible whereabouts and actions the elusive Boy-Who-Lived was up to. Hermione Granger was responsible for one side of the argument that her “friend” was sulking somewhere and condemned him for avoiding his schoolwork and classes. Ronald Weasley, however, would viciously tell anyone who would listen about how his “best mate” was always a coward and how if it wasn’t for him, Harry Potter wouldn’t have made it out alive in any of their misadventures.

Finally, the First Task began and still no sign of the Fourth Champion. But there’s no need to worry. There’s still plenty of time. So long as the boy actually appears for the tournament, it doesn’t matter if he goes last. However, Harry Potter still didn’t show after all three of the true Triwizard Champions had their turn, so they gave the boy some time to work up his courage and waited. And waited. And waited.

Then the sun went down. The First Task had officially ended and Harry Potter _still wasn’t here_. Where is he!? Where is their Boy-Who-Lived?! Panic ensued over the fourteen-year-old wizard’s wellbeing. In order to calm the people in some way, Ministry Cornelius Fudge, taking the advice of Albus Dumbledore, ordered a nationwide manhunt to locate their Savior and bring him to the Ministry of Magic for his own safety.

Perhaps it’s not too late. So long as they can find him before the Triwizard Tournament was over, he’ll still have his magic once they get the boy to participate in one of the remaining tasks. But days passed, then weeks, then months. Then the Yule Ball came and went as did the Second Task until finally, the Third Task ended with Cedric Diggory taking the Triwizard Cup and earning a bittersweet victory for Hogwarts and Hufflepuff. Still no Boy-Who-Lived.

Eventually, the Aurors had to give up the unsuccessful searches, and it was presumed that Harry Potter was possibly dead. After all, a wizard losing his magic is a fate worse than death. Even if the boy had run away and somehow avoided capture, there’s no way a barely-trained Hogwarts student can possibly survive on his own without his magical core. All around the United Kingdom, witches and wizards mourned the loss of their Boy-Who-Lived. An empty grave and headstone was even erected beside his parents in Godric’s Hollow on behalf of donations from the public in memory of their precious Savior.

Ando so life had no choice but to move on, but the British Wizarding World from then on was never the same.

ʅ(°ヮ°)ʃ

Deep within Italy, one Hadrian Temperanza stepped off his plane at the Lamezia Terma International Airport, dully prepared to enjoy his newfound freedom like the clouds he had watched pass by during his flight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for reading~! Reviews, favorites, and follows give me life~! ໒( ͡ᵔ U ͡ᵔ )७


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Now how did Harry James Potter got away from the Wizarding World and escaped to Italy after becoming Hadrian Temperanza? Let’s rewind for a second.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own anything by J. K. Rowling or Akira Amano.
> 
> "Speaking."  
> Italicized-Something Written.

Now how did Harry James Potter got away from the Wizarding World and escaped to Italy after becoming Hadrian Temperanza? Let’s rewind for a second.

After Harry’s falling out with his former best friend, he went to bed and pretended to be asleep. At around three in the morning, he quietly packed up his stuff and donned his invisibility cloak then slipped out of Gryffindor Tower. He made a quick stop at the Owlery to pick up Hedwig before heading towards the Second Floor Girls’ Lavatory, narrowly avoiding Mrs. Norris and Filtch on the way.

Thankfully, Moaning Myrtle wasn’t around so he opened up the Entrance and made his way down deep into the empty tunnels, making sure that the Entrance was closed behind him so no one can follow. Once in the corridors, the teen took off his Invisibility Cloak and packed with alongside his clothes and then continued to his destination. When Harry finally made it to the Chamber of Secrets, he was surprised to find that the Basilisk’s corpse was still fresh as though he had just recently killed it. Ignoring the large carcass, he walked towards where the Basilisk was hidden and took a peek inside the mouth of the statue.

Inside the Basilisk’s den, the young wizard saw that there were three separate inner chambers. One was large, most likely where the giant snake hibernated. Another was narrow and led to a small door. Harry will have to explore what’s behind later. The last was what appeared to be a workspace with an entire library of books in various shapes and sizes. The library area looked too new. Like someone had been regularly making sure that the books well taken care of so they would look like they’ve just been freshly made despite being probably a thousand years old. If it wasn’t for the dust and grime that covered the floor and the disintegrating remains of a large desk, Harry would have assumed just that.

Passing by the books with a curious look, he headed towards the small door. Unfortunately, there was no time to take a look at Salazar Slytherin’s collection. The teenaged wizard couldn’t even take some of the books into his trunk in case he needed to be fast enough to make a quick getaway. He’d rather not get caught because he was being weighed down, thank you very much.

He stood in front of door and asked his pet owl, “Help me pray that there’s not anything dangerous behind there.” Hedwig only barked at him reproachfully with a sharp look as though she was saying, “Just get on with it, Hatchling.”

Taking a deep breath, Harry cautiously grabbed the doorknob and slowly turned. The door was gradually pulled with a loud creak from the ancient rusty hinges until it was finally wide open. The young fourteen-year-old and his owl took a long look at what exactly the door was hiding.

Well, what do you know? It is a hidden exit after all.

ʅ(°ヮ°)ʃ

Gringotts Wizarding Bank was always kept open at all hours. No matter how little clients they get after midnight, the Goblins of Gringotts are always there to deal with any wizard they can make money off of. After all, it’s not unheard of for a bankrupt wizard to come through their doors well past midnight demanding to “give them back their stolen riches” only to exit the bank entrenched in debt.

So when one Goblin by the name of Griphook was visited by one Heir Apparent Potter under his family’s invisibility cloak, he simply pointed the boy to another Goblin where he’ll be taken to his office. As one of the few Goblins willing to deal with wizards at unholy hours, he quickly got one of his available kinsmen to take over while he takes care of the matter at hand.

“Now what can Gringotts do for you, Heir Apparent Potter? A loan? A will? An update on your family’s vault?” The goblin addressed the child as he sat down at his desk.

The young teen sitting in front of him blinked a few times even though there was little emotion showing on his face, his eyes widened a fraction to indicate his confusion. “My…family’s vault? …I thought I only have my trust vault.”

Griphook snapped his fingers and a long piece of parchment and an ornate knife appeared. “Just a few drops of blood will do. The parchment will show what you’ve inherited, what you have access to, as well as the state of your family fortune.”

Without hesitation, Harry quickly sliced the palm of his hand open, not even wincing from the pain. He allowed the drops of blood to collect onto the parchment, causing words to appear.

_Birthname: Harry James Potter_

_Parents: James Charles Potter (father), Lily Jeanne Potter n_ _ée Potter (mother)_

_Immediate Living Relatives: Petunia Evans n_ _ée Dursley (maternal aunt), Dudley Dursley (maternal cousin, underage), Sirius Orion Black (godfather, distant paternal cousin), Alice Elda Longbottom (godmother, invalid)_

_Vaults Available: Potter Family Trust Vault (full access until of age), Potter Family Vaults (inherited by blood, unavailable until of age), Gryffindor Vaults (inherited by blood, unavailable until of age), Black Family Vaults (limited access as Heir Apparent), Peverell Family Vaults (inherited by blood, unavailable until of age), Slytherin Family Vaults (inherited by right of conquest, full access), Thomas Marvolo Riddle Vaults (inherited by right of conquest, full access)_

Griphook tapped a clawed finger at one of the vaults. “Because you are still a minor, the vaults will stay as they are for the time being. After your 17th year, Gringotts will pool everything into one main vault. If you want to have multiple vaults to organize your belongings and whatnot, you will have to come back here, and we will discuss all the contracts and rental fees that come with it.”

The green-eyed teen looked at his vaults with a thoughtful look in his eyes before finally asking, “…Question. What should I do to make it so that I’m emancipated? I’d rather not be under the thumb of anyone.”

“As the last heir of your respective lines, you are eligible to try and claim Lordship. You will put on the family rings. If you are truly proven to be Heir, the Family Magics will accept you, and you are from henceforth the Head of the Family and thus considered an adult in the eyes of Magic. But if they don’t…” The Goblin paused to chuckle evilly. “Well, let’s say that imposters tend to have a messy end.”

The young wizard then bit his lip. His brow crunched in worry briefly before it was replaced by an excited glint in his green eyes, like he suddenly had what Griphook believed the Muggleborns called, “a light-bulb moment”. “I see… Before I do that, can I change my name and you make it that it seems like I died? Once I become emancipated and move my vaults, you just say that you reclaimed all my vaults for Gringotts since I’ve never made a will despite being the last of my line?”

Griphook sneered. It was a devious plan. One that will be a sure-fire way to send all of the wizards into a panic should it ever become a success. Perhaps this particular wizard might be more tolerable than the rest. “…For a price. But it will take more than your trust vault for Gringotts to cooperate with your ruse.”

The teen leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes to think carefully. While he could empty out some of his vaults, but he’s rather leave his Family Vaults untouched since that’s all he had left of them? Perhaps he could sell off some stuff that he didn’t need to the Goblins. Maybe he was being petty, but there’s bound to be a plenty of junk in Slytherin and Riddle’s Vaults that’s valuable, right? Speaking of which… “Do you know exactly how much a 50 feet Basilisk 2-year-old carcass might sell? I know the skin and ingredients that might come out of it will be expensive because of how rare they are nowadays. If you can make what I want happen, I suppose I can ‘donate’ it to Gringotts.”

The Goblin almost choked on his saliva. Almost. An entire fifty foot Basilisk carcass! And the boy is just willing to just give it to them, all for faking his death! The Head Goblin will have his head if he’s stupid enough to let such a good deal go!

Once he finally regained his composure, Griphook gave the child a sharp-toothed grin. “Heir Potter, I believe you and I are going to get along just fine.”

ʅ(°ヮ°)ʃ

Later, Harry ended up escorting an army about a dozen Goblins in charge of rendering the Basilisk corpse into valuable and usable materials to the Chamber of Secrets. Considering Harry is trying not to be found and Gringotts didn’t want to lose out on a rare opportunity to get their hands on the carcass, they were generous enough loaned out an enchanted amulet that shields his existence from any and all wizards at a discount.

Upon seeing the Basilisk for themselves, all the Goblins were awestruck at just how large that ancient snake was. Respect for the dark-haired boy shot up considerably.

One of the Goblins turned to Harry and snapped, “Child, are you sure _this_ is 50 feet?! Because a Basilisk this big has to be _70 feet_ at most!” The first thing they did was measuring its actual length. It turned out to exactly sixty-eight instead.

While Harry stayed back to give the Goblins their space to work, he took the time to explore Salazar Slytherin’s hidden library. One of the books caught his eye. _Soulfire Aspects by Lavinia Lockheart_. It sounded like an interesting read so he took it from the shelves and opened it up to read, ignoring the sounds of the Goblin rendering team butchering the Basilisk into potion ingredients.

About an hour into the rendering process, one of the younger Goblins group wandered away and happened to spot all the skin the Basilisk had shed over the last thousand years of existence. Practically squealing in delight, the Goblin ran back to the others and reported the amazing find. Apparently, the shed skin of the Basilisk is just as sturdy as the hide of the corpse, albeit much easier to be made into clothing and armor.

When confronted by the Goblins on what he should do with the find, Harry nonchalantly replied, “Is that so? Since I’m ‘donating’ the carcass to Gringotts, that also means the skins belong to you Goblins as well.” It’s not like he can actually use the skins for anything useful. He could barely sew anyways.

ʅ(°ヮ°)ʃ

With the carcass rendered, the shed skins collected, and all the paperwork prepared and ready to file by Griphook, Harry James Potter is ready to change his name. Signing all the appropriate documents, the young boy made it that the fourteen-year-old wizard would be considered dead by the thirtieth of November, which happened to be the birthday of one “Hadrian Temperanza” as Harry is known as from this point on.

Upon seeing that the rings have accepted the wizard as the new Lord, Griphook sneered. “Congratulations, Lord Potter or should I say Lord Temperanza. You are now officially perhaps the most influential and wealthiest wizard in all of Britain. Now where shall we relocate you?”

The newly-christened Hadrian blinked. “…You can do that? Why?”

The Goblin looked him straight in the eye so the wizard could see how serious he was at this. “Lord Temperanza, the Basilisk you ‘donated’ has a net worth of at least 100 million Galleons. And that’s including all the shed skin we’ve salvaged as well. Do you have any idea how much armor our seamstresses can make out of all of that? The Head Goblin even had his own wife be in charge of making your own set as his personal thanks. With all the profits you’ve made for Gringotts, helping you get settled in a new location is no problem at all.”

The young teenager hummed in thought and chose carefully. “Considering I chose an Italian name, I might as well move there.” If Hadrian’s memories from Wizarding World Cup was correct, judging from the Bulgarian Minister’s reaction to Minister Fudge, the British Wizarding World wasn’t exactly very well-thought to foreigners. So it’s much safer for him to live in a foreign country.

Griphook immediately got up from his desk and shouted, “Excellent! Now let’s get to work.” He then escorted Hadrian into another chamber where he’ll be learning everything there is to know about the country. Starting with the language.

It would take another month and a half before Hadrian was even ready to board the plane traveling to the province of Catanzaro of the Calabria region of Italy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hadrian’s personality: After he finally snapped from his argument from Ron, he suddenly realized that he’s been catering the wants and whims of everyone around him. Knowing that the person who he currently was is the person what the Wizarding World wants him to be, he decides he needs a fresh starts. To reflect this, I’ve decided to write Hadrian as someone who shows very little emotion, but on the inside, he’s really very emotional. I’m going for a Lelei la Lelena vibe from GATE: Jietai Kare No Chi Nite, Kaku Tatakeri or perhaps Kuroko Tetsuya from Kuroko no Basket. 
> 
> Harry’s Inheritance: When I read stories where Harry goes to Gringotts and finds out that he inherited a bunch of stuff, I often get this long list of not only his name, family, and what vaults he has but also the state of his well-being, (what potions were given, what seals were on him, or even what magic was cast on him, etc) what magic he has, (like Metamorphmagus, Animagus, magical core percentage, etc), all the miscellaneous items the author puts in (books, artifacts, jewels, weapons, animals in stasis, etc). To be honest, after reading so many, I find it tiring and just skimmed them like everyone does with the Sorting Hat songs (don’t deny it, I know you do that too).
> 
> Gringotts Bank: While we’re still kinda on the subject, let me share my headcanon about this. Another reason why the inheritance information was relatively short is because the Goblins don’t exactly see wizards in a positive light. To them, all wizards are the same only with varying bank accounts. At best, they are simply clients who they can profit off of so why should they show the wizard the state of their well-being when they are basically vicious businessmen at their core. In fact, why care about a single heir of a wizarding family at all, when they’re just there for them to drain dry in the future if and/or when they mess up. Everything in the vaults certainly isn’t going anywhere other than possibly into another vault. (BTW in canon, Dumbledore mentioned to Harry that after Sirius died everything he owned automatically went into Harry’s vault since he’s Sirius’s sole heir so I assumed it’s the same for every vault.) If there’s no one left to claim the vault, then Gringotts gets to keep them. However, they do care to a certain extent. If one of their clients prove to a valuable client like what Harry had done there by handing them the carcass and skins, which they can immensely profit off of, they are sure going to want to keep him around so he may give them more money like that in the future.
> 
> Thank you all for reading~! Reviews, favorites, and follows give me life~! (۶ꈨຶꎁꈨຶ )۶ʸᵉᵃʰᵎ


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hadrian makes a new friend~!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own anything published by Shueisha or Bloomsbury Publishing.

Changing his name was easy. Learning Italian was easy. Moving to Italy and migrate everything to Gringotts Italian Branch was easy. Actually living in Italy, on the other hand… Hadrian was so lost, and for the last year alone he had no idea what he was doing wrong.

It wasn’t that he couldn’t get a house to live in or unable to buy food. Hell, thanks to the combined riches he inherited, the young teen’s _grandchildren_ can simply live off of it without working a day in their lives. However, Hadrian didn’t want to become a spoiled deadbeat so he decided to get a job.

First, he started off at a fast food restaurant as a cashier. But within a week, he was let go because according to the manager, his coworker and customers found his behavior “unapproachable”. Then he tried being an accountant was fired after two months because for some reason, his boss kept getting frequent complaints from many of his employees about him and had no choice but to act upon them.

Disappointed with his luck, he took a small break for a few months and simply volunteered at a nearby soup kitchen until he regained the confidence to start working again.

His third job as a janitor was more or less fine for a while until an incident occurred. It was easily the worst thing he’d ever experienced since he set foot into the country thus far. One evening, Hadrian had just check out of work when all of a sudden, he was accosted by one of his coworkers. The older man proceeded to drag him into a nearby church and bodily threw the young teen at the feet of a confused priest. He started demanded that the dark-haired boy be exorcised to “get rid of his demonic influence and unnatural ways.”

The priest took one look at the puzzled green-eyed boy and suddenly understood the situation. He tried to calm the God-fearing man down and tell him that Hadrian was just an ordinary person. Rather than listening, the unhinged man blew up and dissolved into a venomous rant about how “an abomination like him should’ve been drowned at birth.” It wasn’t until the man uttered the word “freak” that the teen felt a familiar snap in the back of his mind then everything went black.

When he finally came to, Hadrian found himself standing over the beaten bloody body of his coworker and his fists covered in the man’s blood. One arm was held back by the frightened priest who was begging him to calm down and stop his assault. Realizing what he had done, the brunet young man turned to the priest and apologized before swinging his still groaning coworker on his back and carried him to the hospital.

The next day, Hadrian handed in his resignation and was job-hunting once again. It wasn’t until his fourth job that he finally found answers to what was going on with him. And he had just turned fifteen as well.

The café he was working at for the past month and a half was named the Praepropere and is owned by a middle-aged woman. For a little while things were going great, and he even developed a good relationship with his coworkers. However, that all changed when a customer spilled tea on his uniform so Hadrian had to go and get changed into a fresh spare.

Upon exiting the locker room, he came out wearing a random uniform he picked out that was around his size. He then went to the owner for directions, oblivious to the gobsmacked look his coworkers were giving him.

The middle-aged owner had her back to him and slowly turned around to address him. “Oh, Hadrian! Just in time. I need you to- WHAT IN HEAVEN’S NAME ARE YOU WEARING?!” The woman shrieked in horror upon seeing her employee.

The teen looked down at his uniform in confusion. “Is there something on the apron? Did I take the wrong blouse? The skirt fits me, right? Maybe I should bring leggings or something next time it happens. I’m not comfortable with my legs exposed.” The green-eyed boy was simply wearing a fresh café uniform after his old one got stained. But only one problem… It was the _girl’s_ uniform. And Hadrian wasn’t even the least bit disturbed that he was wearing women’s clothes.

Apparently, the owner took offense to how nonchalant Hadrian is and snatched the mop that one of her waitresses was carrying and swung it around threateningly, causing the teen to raise his hands and take several steps back to avoid being hit. “Y-You- You HEATHEN!!! I mistook you for an impoverished misguided young man in need of God’s guidance, but you’re one of those- those disgusting barbaric Satan worshippers! GET OUT!! GET OUT OF MY SHOP!!!” She screamed and raised the mop high above their heads to bring it down on Hadrian.

Then an arm suddenly appeared into view and caught the mop before it could connect with the teen’s head. The man who caught was a tall and muscular with most of his hair shaved save for a part in the front which he had dyed green. He had on a pair of red-rimmed sunglasses and a metal plate on his left knee. But what stands out the most was that he was wearing the recognizable uniform of the Varia, the Vongola Famiglia’s independent elite assassination squad.

“Now, now, signora. There’s no need to for violence. If you simply wanted the poor boy to get out, then you shouldn’t be making such a scene,” the man advised as casually he broke the mop in half to make his point.

Not that Hadrian was ungrateful, what was a Mafioso doing in a place like this? Not only that, why would this person save him? However, the teen’s musings was interrupted when he was suddenly swept up in a bridle carry by his savior who bolted from the café crowing, “DON’T MIND ME~!!! I’LL BE TAKING THIS LITTLE CUTIE WITH ME~!!! AND I’M NOT GIVING HIM BACK~!!!”

...Is his wallet and phone still in his skirt pocket?

ʅ(°ヮ°)ʃ

Within minutes, a bewildered Hadrian found himself seated in a private booth at a relatively-upscale restaurant with the man who just rescued him ordering lunch for the both of them.

The teen slowly blinked and took a deep breath to recover and then calmly said, “Do you happen to serve treacle tart for dessert?”

“Yes, Signorina.” Their waiter nodded and scribbled down the addition. “And will that be all for you two?”

“For now.” The flamboyant Varia waved him off. Once the waiter left, the man fixed his full attention onto Hadrian. “Let me introduce myself, Hari-chan. I’m Lussuria. And you’re probably wondering why someone like me would be interested in you?”

“That is…one of the many questions running through my mind… And Hari-chan?” The green-eyed boy said with a miniscule frown. It’s not that the nickname was bad or anything, it’s just that it seemed too close to his former identity to his liking.

The Sun Officer cooed at him. “A cute little nickname for a little cutie like you~!” Then he took on a more serious demeanor while keeping an amicable smile as to not scare the teen off. “But seriously though, before I answer any questions, I want to know why an Active Flame User such as yourself feel like a Discorded Sky even though you seem relatively stable.”

For a while, Hadrian was little confused by what Lussuria was talking about until it dawned onto him that he was referring to his Soulfire Aspects. After reading Lavinia Lockheart’s research on Soulfire Aspects, he found that wizards are unable to awaken theirs and utilize them to the extent Muggles are able to. According to her hypothesis, Soulfire Aspects are similar to that of a wizard’s magical core only their pathways don’t contain magic but instead it is the manifestation of the strength of the Muggle’s soul. While every person has an Aspect they can identify with based on their souls, it is impossible for an individual to be both a wizard and a Soulfire Wielder without severe repercussions on their overloaded core and soul. The strain will eventually kill the foolish person within a few years to a decade at most as their body’s health declines rapidly based on the Aspect and their soul is whittled away by their own magic in an attempt to “create more room” for itself.

Hadrian thought back to the day he permanently lost his magic. Shortly after he had finished his lessons on learning how to read and write Italian, he suddenly collapsed in the middle of Gringotts. He didn’t remember much of what happened afterwards, but for nearly a week, he was teetering between life and death as his own body struggled to function after every ounce of magic was yanked away from his core as punishment for not fulfilling his magical contract with the Goblet of Fire.

When he finally came to in the Gringotts guest room he was staying, the teen almost panicked with he saw fire coming from his forehead and his vivid green eyes gaining a glowing orange ring around his pupils. The Goblins later tested the flames he emitted and concluded that in a bid for survival, his core forced him to use one of the many lost magics that the Ministry had declared “Dark” (Hadrian guessed that the reason for this label because the wizards hated the thought of a Muggle or Squib being their equal after awakening their Aspects). And it apparently worked. According to Lavinia Lockheart, Hadrian was an Amethyst-Amber Shade. And a ridiculously powerful one as well.

“But I’m a civilian, not a member of the mafia.” The dark-haired teen emphasized his point softly. Sure Italy is a hotbed for Soulfire Wielders or Flame Users as they call them, but he’d rather not be put in a gilded cage by some arrogant Famiglia simply because he happened to be born with the rarest Flame of them all.

“Sorry, Hari-chan. But Skies are precious and rare. Sooner or later someone will take notice if they haven’t already. Lucky for you, I’m here to help, but not out of the goodness of my heart.” Lussuria replied apologetically as their food arrived.

“Okay then. Why are you helping me?” Hadrian asked suspiciously, sampling a bite of his capitone in umido. (stewed eel in tomato sauce) Needs more sauce if you ask him.

Lussuria shrugged and smiled warmly. “Curiosity really. Because of how odd you feel. It’s hard to explain, but your Flames feel warm and accepting. Even though I’m already a Bonded Guardian, I can’t help but want to befriend you. Guess you can’t help Sky charisma.” The Sun Varia‘s face then turned ugly as a he affixed Hadrian with a murderous glare. “However, at the same time, I want to break every bone in your body until you choke on your own blood and my fist crushes your skull and my knee destroys all your major organs. Even now I feel as though I can’t get any peace unless your very existence is permanently out of my life one way or another. If I were a weaker Flame User, I would’ve acted on my instincts and do so.”

The teen cocked his head to the side like a curious puppy. “And you want to find out why? How?” Granted, the knowledge he has on Soulfire Aspects is pretty outdated, but could Flames even be used that way?  

“I only need a bit of physical contact. Just your hand will do. This will allow my Flames to have access to yours and find out what’s the problem with your Flames.” The flamboyant man said nonchalantly as if the technique was as easy as breathing. (For all Hadrian knew, it could very well be.)

The green-eyed fourteen-year-old thought very carefully on this. Even though the process sounded…intimate, it could give him answers on why things have been happening the way it is. Finally he stretched out his hand to the older man. Lussuria took Hadrian’s hand in his and allowed his Flames to poke at the other’s.

He quickly found the problem but immediately let go and yanked himself back away from the dark-haired boy’s hand almost in disgust. “What kind of sick twisted person even does that?! How could the Vindice even allowed this to happen?! They should forgo the Vendicare altogether and chuck this person straight to Hell?!” Lussuria spat out, his revulsion not directed at the boy in front of him.

Startled by the man’s reaction, Hadrian asked in concern, “What?! What’s wrong with me?!”

The Sun Officer looked at the green-eyed teenager with a grim look on his face. “You probably won’t like this, Hari-chan. Inside your scar, I found a small piece of a person’s soul. Not only is it Discorded but from what my Flames can tell, it’s not the first time they’ve done this to themselves. I think it’s the fifth or sixth time, but I could be wrong. The piece is too small and the Flames are too Discorded for me to tell.”

Hadrian felt his spine turn to ice, his breath run short, and the blood drain from his face. In an uncharacteristic move, he lunged across the table, tipping it over and spilling its contents across the floor. He grabbed onto the lapels on Lussuria’s coat with a white-knuckled grip and began begging hysterically. “GET IT OUT OF ME!! GET IT OUT NOW!! PLEASE!!” The teen’s doe-like emerald-green eyes were blown wide open in horror and terror behind his glasses.

“I can’t! If I could do it, I would! But right now, I can’t think of a way to get rid of that little parasite without harming you and your Flames irreparably. In fact, I don’t even know if _there is_ a way to fix you without causing you to fall into Discord.” Lussuria protested, trying to get the younger man to let go of him without the teen dissolving into an all out panic attack.

Hadrian literally became lifeless before his eyes. Slowly, the boy’s tiny fists loosened and then his arms slackened to his sides like they were dead weight. The light behind those lovely vivid green eyes became dead with despair. His face, androgynous and normally set in an impassive look, was pale and slack in defeat.

The older man gingerly put his arms around the dark-haired teen in an attempt to comfort him. He gave a threatening glare behind his sunglasses to the approaching waiters so they would keep away until he can resolve the issue. Hopefully, his next explanation is enough to calm the poor thing down.

“If it helps, you’re not in any immediate danger. There’s still time to find a way to remove it. There’s a thin layer of what feels like Storm and Lightning Flames that’s keeping the parasite from infecting you. However, I wouldn’t recommend leaving it there for the next five years or so. From the looks of it, the barrier has been slowly weakening over time since it was applied. It explains why you haven’t shown any adverse effects up until now.” The Sun Officer said, keeping his voice as soothing as possible while running his fingers through Hadrian’s soft jet-black hair.

The boy in his arms didn’t reply or a few minutes but just took shuddering breaths the whole time. “I…I n-need to get somewhere,” Lussuria heard the boy whispered out.

“Where to, Hari-chan? Do you want me to escort you?” The older man asked.

The green-eyed teen jerked then roughly pulled away and began shaking his head violently. Then he stopped and took several deep breaths to regain his composure before turning to Lussuria. “I can’t tell you. But they’re the only ones that I know of that might have a way to help me.” The teen answered vaguely after calming down a bit.

“Are you really sure about that, Hari-chan?” The man said worryingly.

The dark-haired young man hesitated for a moment. “…Yeah…I think…I can make it there myself. Thanks for the offer though.” The teen gave him a small weak smile in hopes that he seemed more confident than how he actually feels.

The dyed green-haired man frowned, still unsure if he should let this tiny, delicate-looking teenager on his own. “…Well, can I at least leave you my phone number, Hari-chan? I can’t under good conscious leave you hanging like this without at least doing something.”

After a bit of mental debate, Hadrian wordlessly got out his phone and handed it over to Lussuria, who deftly added his number on speed dial.

Just in case.

The two of them then exited the restaurant after paying for their unfinished food and damages. After half a block, Hadrian was seen off by Lussuria who demanded him to give him a call later on so he can make sure his new friend is doing alright. The teen only shrugged and answered with an “I’ll try” before he walked away.

Lussuria waited the next day. But not a single message from Hadrian. The next day was the same… So was the day after that… And the day after that… And the day after that…

It would be some time before the dyed green-haired man ever saw his little green-eyed friend again.

ʅ(°ヮ°)ʃ

A few weeks later, Lussuria finally received a single text from Hadrian. Even though it was a tentative “hi”, he immediately jumped on it, demanding “Where have you been, young man?! Do you not know how worried you’ve made your Sorella?!”

The teen then explained that he had been using his contacts to help him in hunting down a doctor that specialized in Flame ailments and managed to track down Trident Shamal during his search. Even though it took him only a few days to find the man, Hadrian ended up spending the rest of the time convincing the man even take a look at him because apparently “he doesn’t treat men even odd ones such as himself”. Goddamn, androphobic, womanizing pervert. If he hates people of the male gender that much, then may his disease-ridden body develop an STD that will cause his dick and balls to fall off since he obviously hates them so much. Hadrian’s words, not Lussuria’s.

When the younger man confirmed that he was now parasite-free, the dyed-green haired man was so overjoyed with the news that he demanded the green-eyed teen to go on a shopping spree with him and wouldn’t take no for an answer.

Hadrian ended up becoming Lussuria’s dress-up doll and fashion critique, replacing his whole wardrobe, visited a salon, and even got to enjoy his time at a spa with his new “Sorella”. All in all, it was a beautiful day to celebrate being Voldemort-free.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Praepropere: To eat before the time of the meal s in order to satisfy your palate is one of the five ways to commit gluttony, according to Pope Gregory I (or St. Gregory the Great). In Summa Theologica, St. Thomas Aquinas later defines it as Praepropere, eating to hastily (too soon or at an inappropriate time).
> 
> Soulfire Aspects: I would like to thank Araceil of fanfiction.net for the idea of the Wizarding World having their own terms to describe Dying Will Flames. All credit goes to this wonderful author~! While it may not be the same as yours, I hope you don’t mind me putting my spin on it to fit into my story. (੭ु˙꒳˙)੭ु⁾⁾
> 
> Hadrian’s Flames: Basically the soul shard imbedded in his scar was giving out corrupted vibes, not unlike that of a Discorded Sky. Hadrian’s Active Flames is trying to its best to combat it but occasionally, it slips up and the shard briefly overpowers his Flames lets loose a malicious aura that causes people around him to slowly develop negative feeling towards him. You know how you have a friend or someone you know who has an annoying habit or personality quirk that annoys you, but you can tolerate it and then forget about it a few seconds later. For them, that isn’t happening, and the rotten feelings the soul shard cultivates keeps building up more and more until the person is tipped over the edge by a trigger and can’t help but react accordingly. So it’s not their fault that they treat Hadrian like he’s a leper after a while.  
> Edited (8/9/17)


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hadrian meets the Rainy Wrath pair~ (Yes, I went there, but don't look too much into my summary.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own anything published Viz Media or by Scholastic.
> 
> “Speaking.”  
> “Italicized-Thoughts.”

Hadrian Temperanza, now sixteen years old, was happily working at a small family restaurant by the name of Studiose. It was somewhat popular with the locals and the occasional tourist who wanders into the area so there’s no shortage of customers. Then one day, two particular people entered the modest restaurant.

The first was a tall loud young man with long silver hair shouted as he came through the doors loudly arguing with the person next to him. Said person was an intimidating-looking young man with messy black hair, red eyes, and an unapproachable demeanor. He and other man strolled right in, causing several people and the owner’s son to scramble to get out of their way. Many of them abandoning their meals and vacating the Studiose in the process.

Picking out an empty four-person table that was located in the corner of the small restaurant, the black-haired man took one of the seats and plopped down on it and used the second chair as a foot rest. The silver-haired man, on the other hand, wasn’t as dramatic. He simply sat down on one of the two seats opposite of the other.

To someone who didn’t know any better, they would’ve looked like thugs or criminals. Considering the Studiose is located deep within mafia territory, very rarely does the restaurant cater to a civilian who’s not affiliated with any Famiglia. However, the uniforms they wore identified the two men as members of the infamous Varia. And not just any members. Hadrian, himself, recognized them as Xanxus and Squalo based on Lussuria’s basic descriptions about them. He had to say, they do look pretty menacing.

“VOI! Where the hell’s the waiter?!” The silver-haired Rain Officer yelled when no one came to get their orders.

Seeing as the owner’s son, the waiter nearest to them, was busy cowering in the corner of the room, Hadrian decided to step up to the plate. He briskly made his way over from all the way across the restaurant to their table and greeted them with a nonchalant smile. “Sorry for the wait. What would you like, sirs?”

“Steak, trash.” Xanxus demanded, causing Hadrian to blink. Didn’t Lussuria complain the other day on how his boss was being so difficult in his treatments? Was he even _allowed_ to eat something so heavy?

“Boss, didn’t the shitty okama tell you that you can’t strain your teeth for a couple of weeks? You’re still recovering.” Squalo pointed out to his boss.

“Don’t care. Get me something with steak.” The Varia leader simply replied.

The Varia second-in-command scoffed and rolled his eyes before turning to the petite young man. “Voi, shitty waiter! I’ll take the same as him. But it better be good or I’ll run you through!”

“Right away, sirs. Please wait for your meal.” Hadrian said to them politely and made his way towards the back room. Oh well, not his problem if the guy wants to wreck his stomach. Hmm, so a tender steak meal then.

Entering through the room that contained the kitchen area, he delivered their orders to the trembling chef, who most likely heard Squalo’s loud voice from the kitchen. “They want a steak meal. Preferably something that might be a bit easier on the teeth to eat. So I recommend that the meat should be very tender.”

The man visibly winced, as he struggled to think. There has to be at least one of his family recipes that would fit the requirements. Even an appetizer will do. Sadly, he could only draw up a blank. “W-we d-don’t have anything like t-that. The cl-closest thing we have is beef s-stew. And e-even then the c-chunks are still r-relatively tough.” The owner stuttered in fear.

Hadrian hummed thoughtfully as he wondered what he could do. “I see… Excuse me, sir. Can I borrow the kitchen for a bit?” He walked around the kitchen and examined all their available ingredients they have on hand. There was plenty of everything he needed to prepare the dish he had in mind. “I want to try out a recipe that I found out recently.”

Studiose’s owner choked in shock. “A-Are you sure, Hadrian? What if it’s a failure?”

“Then you can just blame me for incompetence. I doubt they’ll kill me if my food makes them angry, but hopefully, my blood doesn’t stain your walls too badly.” He replied calmly as he put on a frilly pink apron that belonged to the chef’s preteen daughter. Not even batting an eye on how ridiculous it looks on him.

“Can you get out of the kitchen until I’m done please? I need space to work. Plus I need someone to tell our special customers to wait about half an hour.” The green-eyed teen requested as he washed his hands thoroughly.

The chef actually whimpered a little as he scurried out. Hadrian ignored the yelling that followed a little while after as he got out several onions and started chopping them finely.

Come to think of it… should he apply his Cloud Flames into his cooking?

ʅ(°ヮ°)ʃ

Before the thirty minutes were up, Hadrian came out of the kitchen carry a tray with two bowls of rice topped with a large beef steak generously covered in onions.

“This is Chaliapin steak rice bowl. It may not be Italian or on the menu, but I figured you’d enjoy this much better than our usual fare. Tender, easy to eat, and you can have steak without burdening your teeth.”

The men looked at their rice bowls dubiously. Squalo himself took a fork in his hand and stabbed at the steak only to be pleasantly surprised at how easy it is to cut apart the meat with just a pull of his fork. Passing the tenderness test, toth men took up their spoon and fork and took a bite out of their meal. Their eyes lit up at the flavors dancing on their tongues, and they immediately dove into their bowls like it was their last meal.

“If there’s anything else you need, don’t hesitate to call for me.” Hadrian said pleasantly. “Now then if you excuse me I’ll go tend to the other customers while you enjoy your meal, sirs.”

The waiter was about to turn around to leave and allow the men to enjoy their meal when something was thrust in front of his face. He blinked and realized what it was. It was an empty bowl. One that he had served recently and had only a few rice grains left over.

“Seconds.” Xanxus demanded as he wiped his mouth with a napkin while his second-in-command was still finishing up his own bowl. Judging from the sounds he was making, it’s safe to say that they both liked his cooking.

“ _That was fast._ ” The teenaged waiter thought before saying aloud as he accepted the offered bowl with a smile, “Coming right up. But I’m going to need another 30 minutes, is that okay?”

The red-eyed man gave a sharp nod of his head. “Keep them coming.”

“ _Well, I’m still intact so that must be a good sign,_ ” he thought as he went back to prepare the next round of rice bowls. Might as well make four just in case.

ʅ(°ヮ°)ʃ

Five more bowls later and a pair of satisfied Varia Officers finally left the restaurant after paying generously for the amazing meal. As the dark-haired teen saw them out, he felt a hand on his shoulder. Turning around, the young man saw that it was the owner.

“Hadrian, you are getting a raise and promoted to head chef,” the man said to him seriously as he looked him straight in the eye.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you, Shokugeki no Soma. I think I’ll be using you a lot in this fic. At this point in the timeline, the Ring Battle Arc hasn’t even started. Xanxus has just recently been unfrozen so he’ll need some time to fully recover. 
> 
> Hadrian Temperanza: Forgot to put this here. It’s a little late, but I tell you now. Temperanza is Italian for temperance, the virtue that is the opposite of gluttony in Christianity.
> 
> Studiose: To seek delicacies and better quality of food in order to satisfy your sense of tastes is one of the five ways to commit gluttony, according to Pope Gregory I (or St. Gregory the Great). In Summa Theologica, St. Thomas Aquinas later dubs it as Studiose, to commit gluttony by seeking food that is too daintily or elaborately prepared.
> 
> Hadrian and gluttony: By now you should be familiar with the Varia’s theme. Each of the Varia Division Officers represents one of the seven deadly sins. Xanxus (Wrath), Squalo (Pride), Mammon (Greed), Belphegor (Sloth), Lussuria (Lust), Leviathan (Envy), and lastly, we have Hadrian (Gluttony) who will follow the theme eventually. Of course it’s only reference through his cooking skills since he’s not exactly desiring food himself but rather making people desire his food. (　ﾟДﾟ)⊃旦
> 
> Edited (8/9/17)


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You know what? That’s it. Bring it on! What else do you got for him?! He is so done with all this shit for today!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Funny Food Quote: “If we’re not meant to have midnight snacks, why is there a light in the fridge?” (7/26/17)

Nearly a month later, Hadrian’s workplace, the Studiose family restaurant, closed up for a whole day. Why? Because the Varia is here. The Boss in all his bad-tempered glory with his loyal Flame Officers in tow. Taking an entire family-sized table for themselves, they sat down and demanded to see the waiter-turned head chef.

Of course upon spotting the young teen exiting his kitchen, Lussuria squealed in delight and went over to glomp the petite teen. “Hari-chan~! Long time no see~! I didn’t know you worked here. And since when did you grow out your hair? You look even cuter now that you don’t have that bird’s nest anymore.”

From his Sorella’s arms, Hadrian allowed himself to look at Squalo with a knowing glint in his green eyes. “Honestly, I’ve never thought about growing my hair out enough so it wouldn’t be such a chaotic mess to handle up until last week. And I would like to thank a certain silver-haired Rain Officer for that.”

After seeing the man make long hair work for him, the dark-haired teen figured he’d give it a shot for himself. A quick Cloud Flame session to increase the length of the hair follicles, and he was finally able to control the dreaded rat’s nest curse that every Potter has suffered. God, Flames are amazing when you think outside the box! Eat your heart out, magic!

“That’s a boy?” Levi whispered to his fellow Officers dubiously. Well, they can’t really blame him for being skeptical.

Hadrian was wearing a feminine version of the Studiose’s chef uniform. Underneath it all, he had on dark-colored tights with matching heeled flats on his feet. His long hair was tied up in a neat high ponytail with a braid around the base and everything kept together with a purple hair ribbon with gold accents. The teen even had lily hairpins keeping his side-swept bangs out of the way, exposing his large, glasses-free doe eyes and deceptively gentle features.

“Voi, shitty waiter! …Er, waitress? Chef!? Why are the hell are you wearing women’s clothes?” Squalo asked, a bit flustered seeing the teen dressed the way he is. If you didn’t know any better, you would’ve easily mistaken Hadrian as a really cute girl.

“Eh? Is something wrong with the uniform? Please don’t tell me I missed a stain on my back or something.” Hadrian said worryingly as he turned his torso this way and that to see the non-existent stain.

“So they ran out of male ones?” Xanxus guess, eyeing how the tights emphasized the teen’s slender but well-toned legs.

“No, there’re still plenty of the masculine versions. I just changed into the first one I picked out which happened to be this.” He replied, lifting the hem of his lacey apron slightly.

Belphegor took the opportunity to comment. “Ushishishi. The prince wonders. Doesn’t the peasant feel a bit embarrassed to dress like a woman?”

Hadrian frowned and replied, “They’re just clothes, aren’t they? It’s not like fabric are sentient enough to tell us what gender it wants its wearer to be.” He then cocked his head curiously. “…By the way, I identify with any gender as much as you were biologically born a woman. So if you are hiding something underneath your trousers, then I may have to rephrase my reply.”

The blond teen let a “Kaching” and looked about ready to take his knives out and bury them in Hadrian until the Mist Arcobaleno beside him interjected with their food order.

“Mu. I want to eat Mapo Doufu… One where even an infant can eat it.” Mammon challenged the restaurant’s head chef. They haven’t had their favorite food since they’ve been cursed. Being stuck in an infantile body means their taste buds are also that of a small child. If this teenaged chef is able to create a dish that can be eaten by them then they’ll happily tip them.

Nodding, he got out his reading glasses and put them on. He then took out a notepad and pen, which he had swiped from the owner’s son as the green-eyed teen passed by. Quickly jotting down the order, he said, “…Ah, I’ll see what I can do then. And what about you, sirs? What would you like?”

The owner, vaguely recognizing that it was a very spicy Chinese dish, went up to his employee tried to dissuade his chef from fulfilling the order only for his concerns to be waved off by the disturbingly calm teen.

“I know it’s spicy, but I can make it so that it’s mild enough that a small child can enjoy it. You shouldn’t worry about my cooking ability. Just sit back and relax. If I need anything, I’ll call you. Is that okay?” Hadrian replied confidently as he turned his attention back at the Varia Officers.

“Steak, trash.” Xanxus ordered.

“VOI!!! Again, shitty Boss?! You know what?! Forget it! Just get me some meat! And make it surprising, shitty chef!” Squalo demanded loudly.

Then Levi immediately chimed in. He initially insisted that he wanted the same as his beloved Boss but one glare from the red-eyed man told him “Order something different so you don’t make it easy on the trash”. In the end, he decided on getting something similar enough to be the same thing Xanxus ordered but different enough that it’s not the same. “Go get me beef bourguignon.” The man ordered.

“Ushishishi. The price demands sushi.” Belphegor said, also putting out his own challenge.

“Oh, surprise me as usual, Hari-chan~. You know I’m always in the mood for your cooking.” Lussuria said. Out of all of them, he’s probably the only one who knows that his little friend will go above and beyond their expectations. Honestly, he can’t wait to see the teen seduce his fellow Officers with his cooking. The blackmail will be glorious!

After the dark-haired teen wrote down all their orders, he looked up and replied, “…Yeah… I’m going to need maybe 2 or 3 hours to prepare what I have in mind for all of you. Do you think you can stand waiting that long?”

Xanxus scoffed but said. “Trash. It had better be good then.”

Hadrian took off his glasses and leveled the red-eyed man a determined glint in his emerald-green eyes. “Tell you what…if you say that you dislike my food then you have my full permission to do _whatever you want_ with me. I am that sure of my abilities.”

“But what would _you_ get if we don’t say we hate your cooking?” Mammon questioned suspiciously.

“Satisfied customers.” He shrugged, taking out his glasses case and putting away his spectacles. He tucked it into the pocket of his skirt as he turned away and went back into the kitchen.

Make a satisfying meal for the Varia Boss and his Guardians? Challenge accepted.

ʅ(°ヮ°)ʃ

For the next two and half hours, Hadrian fluttered about his kitchen. Without breaking a sweat, he calmly made the multiple meals at once with expert ease. Occasionally, he would poke his head out and ask the owner or his daughter to go fetch an ingredient the restaurant didn’t have on his behalf and using his own money has well. A whole quail. Various beef parts. Tofu. Soy sauce. Curry spices. _Liquid Nitrogen_? The last one the chef had to give specific instructions on where to get it. What kind of family restaurant food requires liquid nitrogen as a part of the recipe?

Finally, Hadrian came out his domain carrying a large tray, each containing a variety of dishes, in both hands. The delicious smell coming off the trays made their mouths water slightly as they anticipated what the emerald-eyed sixteen-year old had in store for them.

“Sorry for the long wait, but your food is finally ready. For Signor Xanxus, I made Chikuzenni style beef stew. Next, a dish that I call ‘Roast Pork…Well, Not Really’ for Signor Squalo. (Before you ask, that really is the name. Please stop ‘Voi-ing’ me, sir.) For Signor Levi, I made beef bourguignon. And for Prince Belphegor, I made temari sushi.” The teenaged chef explained as he place their respective meals in front of them.

“And, of course, an order of Mapo Curry Noodles for you. Just open up the meatball on top and enjoy.” Hadrian said, knowing full well that the first impressions all depend on whether or not he can fulfill Mammon’s challenge.

Curry and mapo doufu? It sounded like an interesting concept but is it edible? More importantly, can they eat it? Mammon took up their fork and cracked open the meatball. Inside was a ball of slowly dissolving curry, which spilled out and mixes with the mapo doufu. His curiosity over the taste of the dish won over as he wound up some of the noodles on his fork and took a bite. The rest of the Varia leaned in slowly as they waited for the Mist Arcobaleno’s reaction. For a whole minute, Mammon was like a statue. Then without warning, the infant practically dissolved into a puddle of goo before the men’s eyes. The babyfied Varia then stabbed their fork into the bowl to get more of noodles as they eagerly dug in.

Seeing as how the Mist Officer’s apparent approval with their meal, the other Officers took it as a cue to try their own food.

Xanxus hummed with approval as he savored every bite of his beef stew. It wasn’t steak, but the fact that Hadrian still used various parts of the same animal made eating the dish enjoyable. Normally, he would be yelling and shooting the chef for not bringing him the right food, but the taste of the meal made him completely forget that he originally ordered steak.

Next to him, the Varia’s second-in-command was uncharacteristically quiet for the first time since the dark-haired man met him as the silver-haired swordsman quietly moaned at the taste of his food. His meal consisted mainly of two things: Bacon and potatoes. The sauce and juices of the miniscule meat were absorbed and permeated the mashed potatoes. The name suited the dish. If you blindfolded him and feed him this dish, he’d swear that he’s eating actual roast pork.

Levi was crying tears of happiness as he savored his honey-infused meat and marveled at how tender it is. A part of him wanted to share what his taste buds was enjoying with his beloved Boss, but there was a gluttonous side to him that viciously growled at the thought of having less of the ambrosia in front of him.

“Ushishishi, a jewelry box fit for a prince.” Belphegor commented as he happily sampled his surprisingly still cold Temari sushi. The artful display of his food was pleasing to the eye of the young man of royalty. Eating it was like experiencing an entire Japanese banquet on a single plate.

“Kyaa~ Hari-chan, you spoil me, really~!” Lussuria cooed. The roasted quail looked so cute next to the poached egg. And when he cut it open, the creamy eggs and risotto stuffing came spilling out. The combination of the juicy quail meat, sour eggs, mellow rice, and sweet sauce combined with a crunchy texture of the cabbage keeping the whole thing together made him want more.

Soon enough, all the Varia Officers finished up every last bite of their meals and leaned back on their chairs with a happy sigh. Their empty dishes were practically licked clean and piled up on the center of the table.

“S-so I take it t-the food is t-to your satisfaction, sirs?” The owner said timidly as he cautiously made his way over.

Xanxus lazily opened an eye and looked at the owner before letting his gaze fall onto the Studiose’s chef a standing a few feet behind him. A vicious smirk slowly crossed face as he called out to the teen with a smug tone in his voice. “Trash, we all hate your cooking.”

Hadrian stared at him owlishly and could only say one word. “Eh?”

Catching on to what his Boss was planning, Squalo added with a shark-like grin, “Voi! Didn’t you tell us that if we _say_ that we hate your cooking then we could do whatever we want with you? Since it’s obvious that we are so _unsatisfied_ , you have to make it up to us.”

“…Eh?” The petite chef repeated quietly, still in shock.

Belphegor’s shit-eating grin widened. “Ushishishi. Congratulations, Lordling. You’re going to be the prince’s chef.”

“………Eh?” He said again. But now that he thought about it, why does the blond haired teen keep calling him that? Oh, dear God! Please tell me he’s not connected to the Wizarding World! He didn’t run away from Britain just to be caught and sent back!

“Yay~! Now I can spend more time with Hari-chan! Oh, I can’t wait to design your cooking outfit! You’re going to look so adorable~!” Lussuria squealed, his thoughts going wild as he pictured his friend in all sorts of cute clothes.

“……………….Eh?” Et tu, Sorella?! Y U Do Dis?! DOSHITE, LUSS-NEE?!

“Mu, we can even save money on take-out by replacing our old chef. It’s not like he’s doing anything other than take up space in the kitchen back at headquarters.” Mammon pointed out. Frankly, Hadrian would be a major improvement. Half of the food their current chef makes isn’t even suited for dogs. Most of the time, they ordered out or make their own meals. Besides after having a taste of what the teen can do, as if they’ll go back to eating their usual slop.

“………………………Eh?” You know what? That’s it. Bring it on! What else do you got for him?! He is so done with all this shit for today!

The look on Hadrian face was amusing to them. He stared at the Varia Officers blankly in catatonic shock and his jaw hanging all the way down in the center of the planet. Finally, he recovered enough from the curveball Xanxus threw to reply to him cheekily. “Do I get to personalize my own uniform or what? My legs may be magnificent to look at, but I don’t like to go bare.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please welcome Hadrian! The Varia’s new Cloud Officer and personal chef~! And I am updating Acedia twice today~ Yay, determination! (^Д^)9
> 
> Everyone’s behavior towards Hadrian: While I am making Hadrian win people over one dish at a time… No, I’m not making it a harem. So all you eager shippers reading this… Don’t get too excited just yet. When someone sees an attractive person, of course they are going to look! It’s the same thing in this situation. And don’t you dare tell me that that never happens and you or the people you know haven’t oogled a gorgeous piece of ass in your life, regardless of their sexuality or gender. Let me make this clear. Hadrian will be paired up with one guy and that is all. Who it will be will eventually be revealed in time.
> 
> Varia’s food: Shokugeki no Soma strikes again~! I am not too sure if it’s humanly possible for one person to make all that within the time limit and in a small-sized Italian kitchen. And then there’s Nakiri Alice’s temari sushi. Yeah, impossible because I doubt the owner of the Studiose has even one of the expensive machines that Alice used to make her sushi hidden in the back of a spice cupboard.
> 
> Edited (8/9/17)


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY TERRITORY!!!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Funny Food Quote: “I spend a lot of time holding the refrigerator door open looking for answers.” (7/26/17)

Hadrian, the Varia’s new Cloud Officer, who commanded an army of Cloud Flame Users, and private Head Chef of the Varia, was _horrified_ by what he is seeing. So horrified that his face, normally kept in an unreadable expression, was contorted in a silent scream. Hell, even Hedwig matched his reaction as she took in what her Master was seeing. She was too busy trying to comprehend the atrocity in front of her to even reproach him for dropping her cage.

After he had quit from his job at the Studiose, he went home and packed up his belongings so he can move into the Varia Headquarters the next day. While the maids were handling his luggage and preparing his room, Hadrian was given a tour of the mansion by his fellow Officers. The reason he brought Hedwig along was because he also wanted her to get the layout of where they would be living from now on so she won’t get lost.

The castle was great. Every room was clean and organized all thanks to the Quality efforts of the Varia maids. But then they got to the kitchen…

His kitchen. His new territory. Was an absolute _landfill_. In the corner of the room, there was a giant pile of trash bags that haven’t been taken out in week, months, or god forbid, _years_. The floor was grimy and covered in filth. All the appliances were faulty-looking and broken down. Dirty dishes and utensils were littered everywhere. Even faucet of the kitchen sink was rusty.

And what’s worse? The sorry excuse for a Varia chef had the gall to hold a party with over a dozen people right. In. _HIS_. Kitchen. For God’s sake! There were people even dancing on the counters. They were practically having public sex only their clothes are still on. Hadrian almost vomited when he saw some of the take-out pizzas got knocked from the box and onto the ground only to picked back up by someone and then eaten by the partygoers. Do they even know how unsanitary it is in here? Or are they too intoxicated to even care about what they put in their mouths?

One of the male participants then sauntered up to them. “Huh? Who’s this? A service girl?” He grunted out as he took a swig from a wine bottle in his hands.

“Trash, _he_ is the new Cloud Officer and _your_ replacement.” Squalo said, emphasizing Hadrian’s preferred pronouns and what he actually is. Now to test whether or not the kid has the potential to be Quality. Will he sink or will he swim?

To their disgust, the man spittaked his wine all over the stove and dissolved into guffaws. “WHAT?! THIS LITTLE BRAT?!” He continued laughing hysterically and pointed a finger at the dark-haired teen. “Are you telling me this little girl is the leader of the Cloud Division? That’s hilarious! She looks like she should be playing with her dolls instead playing pretend!”

Hadrian visibly twitched and dropped his head, letting his bangs fall over to hide his face. “…Get. Out.” He grounded out lowly.

“Huh? What did you say, little girl? I’m afraid I can’t understand anything coming out of that pretty mouth? Maybe you should put it to good use?” The arrogant man sneered down at him and spat out a loogie at the teen’s feet.

Taking a deep breath to control himself, the dark-haired teen gently picking up Hedwig’s cage and handed his beloved owl over to Lussuria who eagerly lavished her with compliments, causing the owl to preen. Hadrian then turned his attention back at the pathetic cook and whispered, “…I said.” The teen then snapped his head up, showing a blood-thirsty expression on his face and his purple-ringed green eyes blazing with fury as he roared, “GET THE FUCK OUT OF _MY_ TERRITORY!!!”

Hadrian used his Cloud Flames to enhance the muscles and bones in his leg and kicked the newly-demoted chef right in the groin. The poor bastard didn’t get a chance to scream as the force of the kick caused several loud sickening cracks that the people watching all recognized as a shattered pelvis. He was then sent flying out the kitchen doors, breaking the wall of the mansion, and crashing down two trees before finally coming to a stop. The young teen then turned his rage towards the shocked group of drunks still crowding around his territory and started to bodily throwing the people, who were two to three times his size and weight, out the large hole in the wall with his Cloud Flame-covered arms.

“…Well, there’s no denying that he’s a Quality Cloud now.” Levi muttered to the rest of his fellow Officers they all observed the chaos while wising staying far away from the dark-haired teen’s warpath. Who knew a dainty little kitten like him can be a terrifyingly _vicious_ panther when riled up?

ʅ(°ヮ°)ʃ

To the disappointment of the Varia Officers, Hadrian absolutely refused to cook until his new kitchen was completely clean and working properly. He ended up spending nearly a week in his new territory, armed to the teeth with cleaning supplies and waged war on the sea of decay. Once every square inch of the area was clear enough that you see their reflections on the surface, he proceeded to strip the room clean of appliances and replaced them with better, fully-functional versions out of his own pocket. Some of the electronics were high-grade and ridiculously expensive as well!

By the time Hadrian was finally done, the whole kitchen was barely recognizable. Up until now they never knew that the old chef had let things go this bad until they finally saw the final results. Half of the Varia were mentally thanking their Boss for recruiting a new chef that actually cared about cleanliness, and the other half were wondering if Hadrian was some kind of miracle worker once they saw how clean he made kitchen.

One person, however, took special offense to the Cloud Officer. The former chef of the Varia knew that he can’t go against his Boss’ decision nor was strong enough to take on the petite sixteen-year-old on his own so he decided to try and make Hadrian’s life miserable by sabotaging the teen (and no, he doesn’t have a healthy fear of a smol angry Varia chef, so STFU). First he tried to slow down the teen’s cleaning efforts by deliberately track mud into the recently waxed floor only to knocked unconscious with a mop and his clothes thrown inside an industrial-sized washing machine. With him still wearing them.

After miraculously surviving the encounter, he retaliated by stuffing Hadrian’s brand-new refrigerator with trash while the teen was out getting a new sink and hiring a plumber to replace the pipes. The next morning, he woke up to a horrible stench and surrounded by cleaning supplies. To his horror right in front of his bed was the same trash-filled refrigerator which was somehow placed into his room without his notice. On one of the doors, it had a sticky-note that said “This stays here until you clean it up. Try and bring it back without doing so. I dare you.” It even had a small doodle of a middle-finger at the end.

Angry at the brat’s demand, he ripped up the sticky-note into tiny little pieces and tossed the cleaning supplies out the window. He asked everyone he knew to help him carry it back to the kitchen, but no one lifted a finger. Finally after a few days of dealing with the smell of rotting trash, he caved and started cleaning. When he finished, he informed Hadrian of his now clean refrigerator. The little bastard had the gall to smirk and say, “What are you talking about? I already have a refrigerator. I never said you had to clean one. Do you have any proof?”

His frustrated screams that echoed throughout the mansion was music to everyone’s ears. The Varia even got a second wave of it when Mammon informed him that they were docking his pay for “damages” (read: messing up Harry’s new fridge) and “annoying the Boss” (read: trying to set Hadrian back on cooking).

This went on for a while until finally, Hadrian had enough. His fellow Varia Officers winced somewhat when they detected the petite teen’s suppressed anger bleeding into their Flame-saturated meals.

“Can someone please tell me why that idiot keeps trying to invade _my territory_?” The dark-haired Cloudy Sky demanded. Apparently, he was that furious because Hadrian only starts behaving like a typical possessive Cloud when he’s feeling particularly murderous.

“Mu, you didn’t kill him?” Mammon commented.

“I figured a good pounding or two is enough of a threat to stay away.” The green-eyed teen replied. He may want the stupid idiot dead so his presence doesn’t lower the IQ of the whole mansion, but he’d rather not be in hot water because he killed the wrong person.

“Voi! Are you or are you not Varia Quality?! If you don’t like the bastard, then waste him! Last I checked he belongs to your Division. Why the hell should we care what you do to your men?” Squalo hollered in reply.

And that was all the encouragement he needed. Hadrian’s dark look quickly faded away and smiled at his fellow Officers serenely. “I see… So Boss, I’m planning on making sandwiches later. What kind of cheese do you want for lunch tomorrow?” He asked, changing the subject.

The next day, the former Varia chef went missing. Even though everyone knew that their seemingly innocent Cloud Officer was responsible, no one bothered to look deeper into it. After all, his cooking too heavenly enough that they all happily turned a blind eye.

A few days later, his body was found laid out on the roof. All his organs were removed and replaced with goat cheese. Completely exposed, flies have laid eggs into the cheese stuffed body, which have hatched into wriggling live maggots happily feasting on the cheese.

From then on, all the members of the Varia referred to the petite teen with a degree of respect.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> May heaven and hell have mercy on your souls should you ever fuck up his food and kitchen. If you do, there’s no need to wonder where your god is because Hadrian the Culinary Deity himself is fresh out of mercy to serve~! Muhahahaha~!   
> ꉂ ꀞꀞꀞ(ᕑᗢूᓫ∗)˒˒
> 
> Hadrian and the former chef: At this point, Hadrian has only been in the Varia for less than 2 weeks. He may not bat an eye at the usual chaos of the mafia, but don’t forget, he was originally a civilian where if you accidently killed a Mafioso, they probably have friends who will kill you in return. So he’s still adjusting to what it really means to be a part of the Varia. Personally, I imagine the Varia as a dog-eat-dog environment. Piss off someone, then you’re guaranteed to have a weapon aimed at your face so survival instincts and the ability to back up your arrogance are a must. Fights happen on a daily with varying degrees of violence. If you get killed over a little “spar”, then you deserved to die because you’re not Quality enough to survive the Varia.
> 
> Former Varia chef’s death: Hadrian killed him and made him into casu marzu. Of course he’s not going to use the makeshift cheese for anything nor does he expect anyone to eat it. He just wants to display his kill in a way that say “Yeah, that’s my work. Mess with me, and I’ll do the same to you but possibly worse.” By the way, in case no one noticed, Hadrian already had an idea on what to do with the interloper but couldn’t decide on what so he let Xanxus choose for him by asking “what cheese?” Aaaannnnddd you can see the result of Xanxus’ answer.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Xanxus leveled his glare at his Cloud Officer. “Your background is as real as a hooker’s breasts. Who are you really, trash?” (◎_◎;)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Funny Food Quote: “Dear future husband, when you’re proposing to me, please don’t put the ring in my food because I guarantee I WILL EAT IT.” (7/28/17)

Later on, Hadrian soon found himself standing in front of Xanxus and his Guardians. On the red-eyed man’s desk in front of him was a folder with his name on it.

“ _Ah… Of course they would do a background check. You don’t survive for very long in the mafia with at least a shred of paranoia._ ” The teen thought with a small sigh. Might as well get it over with. Like ripping off a band-aid. “So what do you want to know, Boss?”

Xanxus leveled his glare at his Cloud Officer. “Your background is as real as a hooker’s breasts. Who are you really, trash?”

To their surprise, an ugly look of disgust spread across his face. “I suppose you mean my _former name_ then.” The dark-haired teen spat out the emphasized words as though he was gargling venom. Hadrian then slumped in defeat and unenthusiastically told them his birth name. “…Harry James Potter.”

At this, Belphegor immediately lost his usual grin as his jaw dropped all the way down to the floor. Mammon was also as equally shocked as the blond. They stumbled, lost their balance on Xanxus’ desk, toppled onto the floor, and landed on their backsides.

“WHAT?! No way! You’re the Boy-Who-Lived?! You look nothing like the pictures on the news! On top of that, you’re supposed to be dead!” The young prince exclaimed, pointing a finger at the other teen.

Hadrian rolled his eyes and scowled at the reminder of his former identity. “Obviously, I’m still alive. But let me clarify something… Harry Potter the wizard died a long time ago, but Hadrian Temperanza, Cloudy Sky Flame User, was born in his place.” The teen said all of this with a serious expression on his face.

“Voi! Shitty midget, what’s the story on this ‘Harry Potter’ brat?” Squalo demanded, respecting the teen’s insistence on separating his former and current selves.

“Muu, pay me 10,000 Euros first.” Mammon responded, making the silver-haired Rain Officer grumble as he handed the money over from his wallet. “Harry Potter was declared dead after losing his magic when he failed to show up for the First Task of the Triwizard Tournament. But he’s obviously still alive and healthy. It’s impossible for a wizard to possess both his magic and Dying Will Flames.” The Mist Officer then turned their attention back to Hadrian and adding, “Let me guess. You really did lose your magic, and the backlash put you in a near-death state, thus allowing you to awaken your Flames.”

“…And that about does it then. I take it you want my resignation now.” The petite teen said, sighing as he waited for the termination of his time in the Varia and mentally prepared himself for yet another round of job hunting.

“Chef trash… You are _mine_! I don’t give a fuck about who you were. You’re not leaving until I burn you to ash!” Xanxus snarled with unwavering confidence, his red eyes glowing with the color of his Wrath Flames.

Deep with Hadrian, he felt his own Flames purred in satisfaction at the man’s declaration. A small click rang within his chest as he stared back with widened emerald green eyes as the ring around his pupils pulsed with his own Sky Flames. Is this what the Harmonization of a Sky feels like? Evidently it is.

“Ah… I’m so stupid.” He said quietly to himself, looking away to the side in embarrassment.

ʅ(°ヮ°)ʃ

While he was making some snacks that Belphegor asked for, a thought suddenly struck him. “Ah. I’ve been meaning to ask you this, Bel… I understand that Mammon knows about by former identity since they’re an infobroker. How’d _you_ know about the Wizarding World?”

Apparently, the Mafia World and the Wizarding World are largely kept separated from each other. Given Mammon’s habit of accumulating knowledge they can sell to potential clients, it shouldn’t be surprising that they would come across the Wizarding World in the process. Hadrian had to hand over a percentage of his Muggle investments over to the greedy Mist Officer just so the Arcobaleno would “forget” about his former identity.

“Ushishishi. You are in the presence of the Prince of Magical Prussia.” The blond responded.

“So that explains it.” Hadrian commented, taking out his glasses case and putting on his reading glasses. He leaned in slightly to take a closer at the tilted diadem Belphegor always wore. Sure enough, the petite teen could make out the Royal Family’s coat of arms imprinted on the metal.

After the Abolition of Prussia and dissolution of the nation-state after World War II, its magical counterpart continued to flourish. If he remembered correctly, the empire’s territory is vast enough that they hold power over most of Europe’s magical communities much like how the British Ministry of Magic must also answer to the Crown. Many of the Ministries of Magic under their control other than obviously Germany included Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Austria, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria.

In other words, as a member of the royal family, there’s no way Belphegor would be ignorant to the existence of magic.

ʅ(°ヮ°)ʃ

“So does the wildcat know what he’s going to make for dinner today?” Belphegor asked as he munched on his vegetable fritters. At least now Lussuria won’t get on his case on how he should be eating more greens and not sushi all the time.

“Wildcat?” Hadrian said curiously as he cleaned up.

“You’re Varia now, so you’re going to need a Varia codename to match. The way you act sometimes reminds me of a cat. You take no shit from anyone, but you’ll only follow along if you feel like it. And God help them if people shit on your territory. So I’m nicknaming you ‘wildcat.’ I highly doubt that you’re not going to be called by anything less.” Belphegor explained.

Hadrian narrowed his eyes in suspicion. “…Am I at least allowed to choose my codename though or is it already decided? Because I swear… if I end up with something degrading like ‘kitten,’ I’ll show them all just how sharp my claws are.” He said while holding a rather large kitchen knife and allowing the light to glance off of the sharp metal menacingly.

Belphegor simply shrugged, wisely choosing not to say anything more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Magical Prince Bel: It’s a common enough trope in KHR/HP crossovers that it’s practically fanon at this point. Often Bel’s depicted as the prince of Magical Prussia so I decided to put my own spin on things. According to the KHR canon, the reason Bel keeps his eyes hidden is to hide his true nationality otherwise the UN as well as other nations will go insane. So it’s safe to say that he’s a VIP. In this story, I made it so that as a possible heir to the throne, Bel has the authority to influence the many magical communities under his rule should he become the next king.


	8. Interlude: Meanwhile Back in the Wizarding World…

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> All for the Greater Good of course.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Funny Food Quote: “Marry the one who gives you the same feeling you get when you see food coming at a restaurant.” (7/30/2017)

In Hogwarts, things have drastically changed since the death of Harry Potter.

For one thing, Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger, the remaining members of the Golden Trio, seem to be drifting further and further apart as time passed. Turns out without their third member, their “relationship” or lack thereof was unable to hold up.

During what should’ve been Harry Potter’s Sixth Year, Voldemort’s Death Eaters attacked Hogwarts during a Hogsmeade weekend and kidnapped many of the students before disappearing. All of whom were muggleborns, halfbloods, and bloodtraitors.

A week later, the missing students were found unconscious in the middle of Little Hangleton Graveyard. But none of the Death Eaters were there. Save for slight dehydration and malnourishment from their time as prisoners, the children were relatively fine. However, upon closer inspection the Healers discovered that each one had a mysterious rune carved on the back of their right hands. And what’s worse is that it seems to be draining their magical core and funneling the collected magic to somewhere. If left alone, the children’s magical cores will eventually be sucked dry, ultimately causing their deaths.

A team of Curse-Breakers were immediately called in to solve the issue, but all they could do was identify that the rune served as a part of Dark Ritual. In other words, there is no cure to their conditions.

Many parents were already mourning the fates of their children. Some even outright disowned their afflicted sons and daughters or even abandoned them. Others were in denial and stooped to pretend that nothing was wrong and that a cure will eventually be found in no time. But no matter what they do, there was no denying the inevitable.

ʅ(°ヮ°)ʃ

Inside of the Headmaster’s office, Dumbledore was at a loss on what he should do. With Harry dead and Neville slowly dying, the war seemed to be a guarantee loss for the Light. Initially, he had planned on sacrificing Harry in order to defeat Tom in one final battle for the good of the Wizarding World, but then the child practically committed suicide by walking away from the Triwizard Tournament. Did he seriously think that you can run away from a magically bound contract? So without any further options he turned to Neville and began grooming him as his new chess piece, but look how that turned out!

Within a month, there were over a dozen of the children are currently confined in the Hospital Wing because their bodies were slowly shutting down from the magical drain. Another dozen were also showing the same symptoms and will be joining their fellow patients soon enough. And while the remaining afflicted students were relatively fine for the time being, it was still doubtful that they will live to see the end of the school year.

In one fell swoop all of his carefully laid out plans were crumbling to pieces before his very eyes. The only thing the old wizard can do at this point is to destroy the Horcruxes, but the problem is _how_. He would’ve preferred to use Basilisk venom, but the Sword of Gryffindor, impregnated with the venom, is out of his reach as he is not Godric Gryffindor’s descendent and the way to the Chamber of Secrets is permanently sealed without a Parselmouth, leaving him no way to harvest the necessary fangs.

While Fiendfyre is an option, it’s far too uncontrollable to be a safe method of destruction.

Speaking of fire… Dumbledore recalled that there was a banned book on an ancient forbidden magic called Soulfire. Perhaps he should look into it and see of it could be used to turn the tide of the war. Even though it is clearly Dark Magic, but the benefits of winning and achieving glory from Tom’s defeat may be well worth it. All for the Greater Good of course.

ʅ(°ヮ°)ʃ

Inside the Grimmauld Place, a sixteen-year-old boy and a fifteen-year-old girl sat on the couch.

“Hey, Luna? How are you holding up?” Neville timidly asked the girl fussing over her hairstyle while holding a mirror beside him. She looked so pale and sickly, like a mere gentle breeze would be enough to shatter her completely. As of late, the eccentric young teen’s health began to severely waned as more of her magical core is being emptied out.

The ditzy-looking girl turned to look at him with glazed eyes. “Hmm… oh dear, your Wrackspurts are increasing, Nev. By the way, do you think this suits me?” Her long blonde hair was separated into two pieces that was arranged and tied together at the base to create a pair of long loops that extended from the top of her head.

The boy smiled, knowing she was attempting to keep his mind off of her well-being. “It’s cute. You look like a rabbit.” He said, deciding to humor her. The teen thought the whole arrangement gave her an illusionary air of having bunny ears.

Luna gained a thoughtful gleam in her silvery-blue eyes. “Really? Then you can call me Alice from now on!”

“As in the Muggle book?” Neville asked and she nodded in reply, causing her new “ears” to bounce as though to reflect her excitability.

“Sounds like a Marauder nickname, isn’t Greg?” A voice rang from the entryway of the living room.

“I’ll say, Forge.” The other person agreed.

Neville immediately perked up upon seeing the familiar mischievous smirks of Fred and George. “Oh, you’re back. How’s your family doing? Have Ron and Ginny come around yet?”

Instantly, both their faces fell as they quietly responded in unison, “No comment.” Apparently not well.

After the twins were diagnosed by the Healers and Curse-Breakers, the family was called in to be informed of the pair’s inevitable fate. Their reactions caused a giant rift to form amongst the members of the Weasley family.

Their mother, Molly, was quick to deny that their Headmaster Dumbledore wouldn’t let a “harmless ailment” like their condition to contaminate any of her children and kept on insisting that “Dumbledore would cure their sickness soon enough.” Their two eldest brothers, Bill and Charlie, were taken aback by her blatant disregard over the twin’s serious conditions and tried to make their mother see sense. An all out inter-family war ensued from there. Arthur meekly took his wife’s side as his two youngest children and Percy. Ron and Ginny both voiced out how they should disown the twins now that they are “useless” to the family. Much to the older brothers’ shock and disgust, Percy actually drew up the document that allowed their parents to.

Bill and Charlie then publically disowned themselves from the Weasley family and took on the Prewitt name, their mother’s family prior to her marriage. Shortly after, they took their brothers under their care and were working on getting full custody along with helping some extra additions to the small family.

Luna, whose father is unable to provide the proper care for her rapidly deteriorating health, so they extended their hand to him, which he gratefully accepted. The man threw himself into researching for any and all possibilities to save his daughter but frequently made sure to spend as much time with her while his surviving family is still remaining in the world. Losing his wife was hard enough, but losing his daughter will surely destroy him. The man was determined to try and find a way to save his dying daughter or die alongside his only child. The last thing he wants is to abandon Luna when she needs her father the most.

And then there was Neville, who was reluctantly disowned by his grandmother on behest of his Uncle Algie, who immediately jumped at making himself the new Head of the Longbottom family now that his grandnephew is deemed an invalid heir. Unfortunately, the fearsome elderly matriarch was unable to do anything as the move was all legal so she reached out to the Prewitts to take in her grandson.

The brothers took the children to Sirius Black’s house where they will be far safer under the Fidelius Charm. When Harry’s death was announced, Sirius had thrown a fit at the Dumbledore’s Order of the Phoenix. He demanded where his godson was and why no one had prevented this tragedy from happening. When no one could come up with a proper excuse, he got fed up with the way things were being handled and promptly banned everyone, save for a few people, from entering ever again, much to his Kreacher’s glee. No matter how much Dumbledore tried to appeal to the man, Sirius’ reply was always a hand drawn middle finger or a moving picture of him mooning the camera.

Of course, they had to reassure Neville and Luna that Sirius Black had been framed for his crime and the man even swore on his life and magic that he had committed no such crime. It also certainly helped that Remus Lupin had vouched for his friend.

“So, Luna-love, when is your mysterious, little friend coming here?” Fred asked the blonde-haired girl.

“You said, there’s a surprise for us.” George pointed out.

“Anytime now~.” The eccentric teen singsonged in reply.

A while back, an excited Xenophilius Lovegood came over with a book that was written by one of their ancestors. The research on the phenomenon at the time was deemed as Dark Magic and too dangerous to be delved into so all the published books were gathered up and banned. Apparently, Lavinia Lockheart was able to salvage one of the original copies and passed it down to her descendents where it eventually made its way into the hands of the Lovegood family (wasn’t that a surprised for them to find out that Gilderoy Lockheart was a distant cousin by marriage?).

The concept of Soulfire sounded extremely risky, but when the other option is dying because of a lunatic wizard’s bid for immortality, it was worth a shot. Not to mention, it’s the only option they had. At worst, they had a fifty-fifty chance of failure.

Suddenly the fireplace burst into green flames, indicating that someone is coming here by Floo. Given all the protective wards the Grimmauld Place has along with the Fidelius Charm, it’s doubtful that the person coming through is an enemy. The first person coming out if the fireplace was a tall, beautiful woman with long, wavy brown hair and cold blue eyes. Despite her good looks, she had a predatory demeanor that seemed to scream out, “I dare you to approach me. See what happens.” Following after her was a teenage boy around their age with tanned skin and dark hair. He was exotically handsome, and his whole body language seemed to ooze confidence from his very pores.

“Zabini?!” The boys cried out, recognizing one of their schoolmates. Blaise Zabini. Son of the Black Widow herself.

The Italian boy‘s mother is somewhat famous in the British Wizarding World. Arachne Zabini had been married seven times in the past twenty years and widowed seven times since her last marriage. According to the rumors, the Lady Zabini only married her late husbands for their wealth and she killed them off after she got them to will everything they own to her, however, no one can prove that the woman was responsible for the deaths of the men so their cases were often deemed accidental, suicidal, or they simply died of natural causes.

“Already?! I thought you were coming at 5, Legs?” Sirius called out as he entered the living room, having heard the mother and son come through the Floo Network.

“It’s already 5, Padfoot.” Remus replied with a long-suffering tone as he followed his friend.

Arachne rolled her eyes and scoffed at the man’s childish behavior. “And here I thought you’d outgrow calling me by that ridiculous nickname.”

“Hey, it’s not ridiculous if it’s true. In more ways than one, am I right, Black Widow?” Sirius replied with a suggestive waggle of his brow.

The woman’s son then let out an angry growl at the man. “Can we get on with this meeting?! I have better things to do than watch you flirt with my Madre!” He complained loudly.

“Blaise, behave! Remember, mio figlio (my son), we are guests in Signore Black’s house.” The youthful-looking mother scolded him with a stern look.

The young man immediately flushed in embarrassment at his faux pas and whispered, “Mi dispiace, Signore Black (I’m sorry, Mister Black).”

Remus reached into his pocket and pulled out his copy of a familiar book. “Now then. Let’s move on to the matter at hand.” He laid it down onto the table in front of the woman and her son and asked, “Soulfire. What can you tell us about them?”

Arachne sniffed at the ancient tome, “From what Xenophilius Lovegood had described, they seem to coincide with Dying Will Flames, which is the more _modern_ term for it.”

“ _Dying Will_ Flames? That sounds more depressing than Soulfire.” George casually commented.

Luna simply hummed in thought. “Oh, I don’t know I think there’s a certain charm to the words.”

The Black Widow continued as though she wasn’t interrupted. “After reading through that book, I can safely conclude that much of the information describes Dying Will Flames perfectly, even if they are outdated.

“Outdated? How much of it is outdated?” Remus questioned.

“Firstly, a person’s Soul Shade or Flame type isn’t as restrictive as the book describes them to be. A person can possess more than one type. While you may be born with one Element, you may develop a secondary Element due to how you were raised, your personality development, or even your parents. Second, the book only describes the Flames of the Sky. There are no mentions of unique mutations such as Earth Flames, Night Flames or Wrath Flames. According to our research, it’s been theorized that these Flames are the results of Sky Flames mutating and evolving into something entirely new. And lastly, there is no limit to how many Guardians a Sky can take on. Multiple Guardians are uncommon, but not impossible. And they don’t have to be restricted to the confines of the role they were given. My grandmother was once a Storm Guardian even though her primary Flames was Mist. In a pinch, she was able to substitute herself as a stand-in for the Mist Guardian.” The formal woman said, finally concluding her long explanation.

“Bloody hell, that was one heck of an info dump!” Fred exclaimed, holding the sides of his head. He didn’t expect to have to listen to an entire lecture when he signed up for this. His twin brother was in the same boat as he struggled to wrap his head around the new information.

“Hold on, it’s technically _Muggle magic_ , right? How do _you_ know about all of this?” Neville chimed in with a hand raised, his voice full of suspicion.

Blaise jumped in to inform them. “The Zabini Family has been connected to the Mafia World for centuries. We exist as a sanctuary for magically-born mafia children. At least once a generation, the mafia would produce a single child who was born with permanently Latent Dying Will Flames. 9 times out of 10, if their Flames aren’t too weak to become Active, it’s usually an indicator that they’re a witch or wizard. So they would be sent to us to be raised in the Wizarding World.”

“So then that means you two aren’t…” Sirius trailed off, already knowing the answer to his question.

“Yes. Genetically speaking, Blaise isn’t blood related to me at all.” The beautiful mother confirmed.

Arachne Zabini’s mother was once a member of the Vongola’s Elite Assassination Squad, the Varia, specializing in honeytrap assassinations. Apparently, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree as the Black Widow of the Wizarding World invoked the same deadly charm that lured her victims into her web before she disposed of them and took everything they have.

Her adopted son, on the other hand, was born to a minor Famiglia who was disappointed that one of their children would never become a Flame User when he’s older so Blaise was given to her when he was still but a toddler. Given her habit of marrying rich men and then killing them for their wealth, people automatically assumed that her son was a product of one of her deceased conquests. A misunderstanding that worked well for the two of them.

“We may not ever be able to awaken our Dying Will Flames, but we know enough that we can coach you to awaken yours. You should rejoice. I highly doubt there has ever been a case of a wizard being turned into a Flame User before.”

“So just to clarify… We have a possibility of not dying… A way into a world of organized crime… And we can basically flip the bird to all the sheeple in the Wizarding World if we succeed. Now… what exactly should we do when we go to Italy again?” George chirped. For the first time since he and Fred got out of St. Mungo’s, things were finally looking up.

Luna’s smile took on a knowing glint. “I don’t know about you, boys, but I already know who my King is. I look forward to seeing him again. ” The sickly-looking girl said vaguely as she stared down at her empty trembling hands. She probably won’t have long for this world, but one way or another, she’ll be heading off to a different world soon enough.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So what do all think will happen later on~ You’ll get a virtual wildcat if you guessed correctly~ =＾● ⋏ ●＾= (Nya~)
> 
> Voldemort’s revival: I took the concept of the Diary and applied it here. I figured that if half of the original soul required the entire magic of a First Year student for that shard to completely revive, then it’s going to take a lot of magical core draining to revive a tiny minuscule soul shard. And that’s me assuming that every time Moldywhore creates a Horcrux, he splits his soul evenly in two. So by the time he tries for his revival, he’s down to 1/128th or 0.0078125 of a soul (yes, I actually did the math).
> 
> Blaise and the Zabinis: I blame the genius of writers like Umei no Mai and Shadowblayze who made me fall in love with the concept of Blaise’s family having connections to the Mafia World. This is my own spin on things. Hope you like them~
> 
> Edited (8/9/17)


	9. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oh dear Lord, please bless me with the self-control not to attach knives on my shoes and kick this bastard in the balls! (ʘдʘ╬)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Funny Food Quote: “They say, ‘You are what you eat!’ That’s funny. I don’t remember eating a sexy beast in the morning.” (8/5/17)
> 
> “Speaking.”  
> “Italicized-Thoughts.”

Clouds are free-spirited people. They are independent and defiant to the very end. In the Mafia World, practically everyone with a lick of common sense would cautiously advise against caging a Cloud. To attempt do so would either mean the death of the Cloud, the complete and utter destruction of their captors, or even sometimes both.

To be free to drift about the sky while protecting their Familia at a distance is the creed of every Cloud Guardian. In fact, their defiance is the very reason why they are crucial when it comes to their Sky’s orders. As a Guardian, they are meant to question everything that might affect their freedom, so should the Rain fail to calm the Sky, and they issue an order that doesn’t sit well with their Cloud. It’s up to them to point out their mistakes and help their Sky see reason.

So when Xanxus debriefs Hadrian, now codenamed Cat Sìth, on his plan to “fix” the Vongola, the first thing that popped into his mind after that was complain, “Why the _hell_ am I being replaced with _Brundlefly_ in the Cloud Ring Battle?”

He then continued by questioning his Sky’s plan further. “Look, I get that you have ‘daddy-issues’ and everything, but really? Putting Don Nono in a machine that sucks the life out of you just doesn’t suit you. Even if you did have that thing modified so it won’t kill anyone. So again… why?” Hadrian, of course, got another thrown wine glass thrown in his direction for his cheeky remark.

“Because the fucking baby trash needs a major kick in the ass. From the reports we’ve been swiping from the CEDEF, the brat’s refusing to be the Decimo. And don’t get me started on the baby Sky’s fucking Rain Guardian! The stupid brat still thinks it’s all a fucking _game_!” The Varia Boss continued bitching to his Cloud. What better way to pound reality into their thick heads than to show them the dark side of the mafia?

Basically, Xanxus’ whole plan to “usurp the Vongola throne” is mostly just one big test for the next Vongola Don. He could easily take over the Decimo seat at any time he wants by force, but he wants to see for himself whether or not Nono’s chosen successor even possesses the capability to rule over the strongest Mafia Familia in the world. By forcing the Ring Battles to occur and staging the conflict, it’ll be a sure-fire way to test the son of Sawada’s resolve. If the boy wins against Xanxus, then the Vongola will have their Decimo. But if he fails to meet the man’s high standards, then Xanxus will just go with the flow and take over as Decimo seat for himself. The Vongola has no use for a spineless leader. The last thing anyone in the Varia wants is a sniveling coward to be the one to destroy their Boss’ beloved Familia.

Hadrian glared at his Boss and slowly said in a low voice, “ _I swear to God, Xanxus di Vongola_ … this plan of yours had better be _freaking amazing_ … Otherwise, I _will_ put you on a _vegan diet_ … And you and I know that I _can_ and _will_ do it.”

The man waved off his Cloud’s threat, ignoring the slight dread pooling in his stomach at the petite teen’s threat. “You don’t have to like it. You just have to follow along and make it so that you won’t regret doing anything.”

ʅ(°ヮ°)ʃ

Shortly after Squalo went to retrieve the fake rings, Hadrian had decided to take it upon himself to scope out the “competition” without anyone knowing. Being relatively new to the Varia, it’s doubtful that anyone outside the Varia had even heard about someone by the name of “Hadrian Temperanza” just yet. The only thing they should know by now was that Xanxus had Harmonized with his new Cloud Officer, Cat Sìth.

His effeminate features, seemingly harmless looks, and deceptively fragile frame made it practically easy for him to slip through CEDEF Headquarters as an intern using a stolen uniform. It also helped that security was relatively lax with their leader and some of his closer subordinates currently in Japan. With only the name “Sawada Tsunayoshi” as his lead, he decided to first investigate their archives on whatever information was available on the Decimo candidate’s father. But what he found about the man utterly shocked and disgusted him.

Apparently, the man is more married to his _job_ as the Vongola’s External Advisor than to his own _wife_. He would leave his family alone in Japan for years on end and with basically no real way to contact him in case of emergencies. Now Hadrian could understand Sawada’s decision in keeping his civilian wife and son out of the Mafia World, but the man didn’t even so much as assign a single rookie to watch over them in case any of the Vongola’s enemies might catch wind of the location of the only heir to the Primo’s bloodline. For the love of all that is holy, it’s not like it’s a big secret that Giotto Vongola had moved to Japan after his retirement. Everyone already knows that he had changed his name to “Sawada Ieyasu” so it’s a simple matter of looking up the family name to narrow down their target’s location.

How many assassins have already been sent to kill off the woman and child? How many rats have slipped into their system like Hadrian had and got their hands on this information? How much of the Vongola’s inner workings has already been leaked because of how disturbingly easy it was for a mere _intern_ to have access to such sensitive info?

The petite teen also recalled something while reading one of the reports the Varia was able to steal from the CEDEF and later found the reports that confirmed his suspicions. His son was being severely bullied at his school. And not just that, he had no friends to turn to and a lack of support at home due to an airheaded mother. It wasn’t until just a year and a half ago that things finally started looking up for him. And it’s only because they had to send in the World’s Greatest Hitman just to get the boy’s life together.

Last time he checked, suicide rates in Japan are pretty disturbingly high, especially among young men, combined with the nation’s cultural ties to the practice of suicide itself. How close were they to completely losing yet another one of their heirs because a certain someone wasn’t watching over his only child closely enough?

This discovery paints a dark picture about what’s been going on in the Vongola since the deaths of the Nono’s legitimate sons. Perhaps Xanxus was in the right after all even if his ruthless methods aren’t. The Vongola _needs_ a highly capable leader to fix these festering problems. If this “Sawada Tsunayoshi” can’t do it, then the Varia Boss has no choice but to forcibly steal the boy’s rightful inheritance from him, otherwise nothing will change and the Familia will continue to rot from the inside out.

Having enough, Hadrian put away everything after making copies of the information he wasn’t able to read. Once he was a few blocks away from the CEDEF Headquarters, the teen used his phone to text his subordinates to prepare the Varia’s private jet for his trip to Japan. It’s time to see who Sawada Tsunayoshi and his Guardians are really like in person.

…And fuck Xanxus and his demand to keep Cat Sìth out of the picture. He wants to know everything before he even does anything. It’s not like they can’t survive without Hadrian in the kitchen for about a week or so. Besides what’s the worst that could happen?

ʅ(°ヮ°)ʃ

When Hadrian came to Namimori, he expected that “Sawada Tsunayoshi” to be a younger Iemitsu but aged somewhere in his late teens. Instead what he found was a fluffy-haired middle-schooler looking more like a male version of his mother than a Mafia Don-in-the making. Hell, he only needed to spy on these kids for less than a day, and he could easily tell that it’s going to take a lot of luck for them to even going to survive the Ring Battles with the way they are currently! Not only that, the kid’s Lightning Guardian is fucking _five-years-old_! Plus where the fuck is his Mist Guardian?!

 _This_ is their future Vongola Decimo!?

Right now, Hadrian is currently observing Tsunayoshi’s training from his position in the trees. Honestly, while the older teen was a bit disappointed that none of them have really reached their potential just yet, the Varia Cloud Officer, however, can tell there is potential in all of them. Give them a few more years, and these kids can be a force to reckon with by the time they graduate.

The next morning, as Tsunayoshi and his Guardians were making their way to their respective training areas, the Cloudy Sky teen decided to take a risk. Still hiding on a nearby rooftop, Hadrian discreetly sent out a tiny pulse of his Flames to get a feel for the quality of Tsunayoshi’s Flame as the boy passed by. However, instead of a steady wave of Sky Flames emitting from the boy like he would expect from an Active Flame User, the feedback felt unusually weak like he’s still Latent. It’s like there is some sort of “wall” that was preventing Hadrian from getting the full signal.

_What the hell?_

“Interesting. I didn’t know the Varia allow cute girls like you into their ranks.” A man’s voice said.

He quickly turned around, but felt a small prick in his neck. Instantly Hadrian felt his body instantly go numb as he lost control of his motor functions. Losing his footing, his limp body tumbled off the roof he was on and landed in the arms of a familiar doctor.

His only thought upon seeing the perverted face of Trident Shamal was, “ _Oh dear Lord, please bless me with the self-control not to attach knives on my shoes and kick this bastard in the balls!_ ”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And the Ring Battles Arc begins… just to warn you…this story is going to slow down a bit because I want to work out a good balance on how involved Hadrian should be in this part of the story. I don’t want him to be a total Mary-Sue and just snaps his finger and everything suddenly goes well, but at the same time, I don’t want him to become a bystander and just watches as everything unfold. Things will go somewhat differently from the canon, and I’m hoping that this Arc will be about maybe 5 chapters or so, however, things could change as I write.
> 
> Cat Sìth: In Celtic mythology, it’s a fairy that resembles a large black and white cat with a white spot on its chest. In folklore, it is said that the cats are not actually fairies but witches that can transform into a cat nine times. It’s been speculated that the stories of these “cats” originated from the Kellas cats, which are a hybrid of the Scottish wildcats (a subspecies of the European wildcat) and domestic housecats. Given Hadrian’s past as a former wizard and his personality as a Cloudy Sky, it’s only natural he has a name that suits him as a person.
> 
> Brundlefly: A reference of the 1989 sci-fi/horror movie, The Fly, where the main character, Seth Brundle, invents a teleporter machine but accidently traps a housefly with him while testing it on himself, leading him to slowly develop into a human-fly hybrid creature, which he dubbed himself as “Brundlefly.”
> 
> Iemitsu-Bashing: I feel like it’s not fair that HP has a lot of characters for me to bash so I went for Iemitsu in KHR to even things out so things won’t be too biased towards one fandom (that and I’ve been reading too many fics that deal with addressing Iemitsu’s mistakes). I suppose I could include Nono in my “characters to bash” list, but it’s going to be temporary at worst. Besides, I have plans for the old man.
> 
> Edited (8/7/17)


	10. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The look on the doctor’s face… was glorious. “YOU’RE A MAN?! AND NOT ONLY THAT YOU’RE THAT ONE PERSISTANT BASTARD WHO THREATENED TO TORTURE ME AND RECORD MY SCREAMING?!!!” Shamal shrieked shrilly in horror as he jumped back from their captive as though they were on fire.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “When your friend says you can have a bite of your food, so you take the biggest bite humanly possible.” (8/16/17) (ʘ言ʘ╬)
> 
> “Speaking.”  
> “Italicized-Thoughts.”  
> Italicized-Writing.

“HIIIIIEEEE!!! You mean this girl is a member of the Varia?!” The fluffy-haired brunet squealed in terror at the sight of their “guest.”

Sawada “Tsuna” Tsunayoshi woke up this morning fully prepared for another day of training. However, he didn’t expect to see yet another member of the Varia so early. Let alone one that had apparently been spying on him and his friends for the past few days to boot. According to Reborn, they were supposed to have ten days to prepare for their arrival, but it was barely even three days since they last saw Squalo Superbi, the Rain Officer of the Varia!

“Shouldn’t we tie her up or something?! She might attack us once our backs are turned.” Hayato said as he stepped in front of Tsuna protectively in case their intruder might suddenly attack.

Shamal simply waved off his student’s concerns and laid the person against a tree and arranged her body so that the girl seems to be comfortably sitting down. “Relax, I simply gave this little lady a dose of the Medusa virus. The disease attacks the nervous system, causing paralysis on the victim. Unless I give her the counter virus, she can’t move a single muscle. In other words, she’s completely at our mercy.”

“…I think you mean she’s completely at _your_ mercy. She can’t even kick you in the face even if she wants to!” Tsuna pointed out awkwardly.

“I am going to castrate you with knife shoes.” The Varia member grounded out to the perverted doctor with clenched teeth, her bloodlust rising with each enunciated syllable. For some reason, Tsuna had a feeling that this person wasn’t just angry at the man’s perverted tendencies.

“…Is she referring to ice skates?” Gokudera questioned.

Shamal, being his usual lecherous self, ignored the girl’s threat and continued to coo over their petite captive. “Oooh~ feisty. It’s nice to see a healthy young girl like yourself be so energetic. She’s a little on the flat side up top, but her cute butt is very shapely~.”

Needless to say, the girl wasn’t enjoying Shamal’s attention one bit. The look on the girl’s face was twisted with absolute disgust and utter loathing for the doctor. Hell, she was even growling the same way Hibari had done when he had caught one of Namimori Middle School’s delinquents graffiting his beloved school. There was even a malicious purple aura emitting from her prone form.

“You really don’t recognize me, do you? Let me tell you this, dicks for brains… Do you remember treating a biologically male person who had a parasite attached to their Flames nearly two years ago? Guess what, bitch? That was me. In other words…I’m not even female.” The delicate-looking Varia member said nonchalantly as he(?) looked at Shamal straight in the eye.

The look on the doctor’s face… was glorious. “YOU’RE A MAN?! AND NOT ONLY THAT YOU’RE THAT ONE PERSISTANT BASTARD WHO THREATENED TO TORTURE ME AND RECORD MY SCREAMING?!!!” Shamal shrieked shrilly in horror as he jumped back from their captive as though they were on fire.

“I’m an agender person! No matter what I look like or how my body is, I don’t particularly identify as anything at all.” The…individual(?) snapped at the man as an angry looking vein pulsed on the side of their head.

“While this is all interesting and all, let’s shelve this topic for another day… Now let’s get down to business by starting off with something pretty easy… Who are you? Tell us your name.” Reborn interrupted, approaching their captive spy.

The Varia member didn’t answer. They simply stared at all of them impassively without a shred of emotion on their face.

“Um, I think the virus might be affecting her ability to speak.” Tsuna said after a whole minute of silence.

Shamal shook his head and explained, “The Medusa virus doesn’t affect the vocal chords so it shouldn’t have taken away his ability to communicate verbally. In other words, he’s just choosing _not_ to talk.”

Deciding to change tactics, Reborn had Gokudera bring out the suitcase he had stolen from the hotel room this individual was staying at. “You know if you won’t talk, then I have no choice but to go through your belongings. They say you can tell a lot from a woman based on the contents of her purse, you know.” The babyfied hitman casually commented as he opened up the suitcase.

Rather than be alarmed that the people are going through their personal belongings like most people, the Varia spy merely frowned and looked like they wanted to say something but decided against it to continue holding their tongue. They simply let out a small sigh and resigned themselves for what is about to happen.

The brunet boy, on the other hand, reacted very differently. “HIIEEE!!! REBORN!! GOKUDERA-KUN!! WHAT ARE YOU TWO DOING?! PUT THOSE BACK!!” He exclaimed in horror as they began tossing out all of the person’s clothes from the suitcase.

“Don’t worry, Juudaime!! Let me handle this!! I’ll find out what our enemy is hiding in no time!” Gokudera exclaimed eagerly, unzipping one of the inner pockets and dumping its contents out onto the grass. Various documents and papers flew out and scattered themselves all around at their feet.

Panicking Tsuna immediately bent down to frantically pick up the papers. “THAT’S NOT WHAT I-” The boy stopped dead in his shouting when he noticed one of the pieces of papers that caught his eye. “R-Reborn… what is this?” Tsuna whispered almost inaudibly as he gingerly picked it up. The boy couldn’t bring himself to say anything more as he examined every inch of the evidence in front of him, vainly hoping that it was a fake or some sick Varia joke that was planted to throw him off his game.

Concerned for his student’s sudden change in behavior, the home tutor climbed up to sit on the boy’s shoulder. The Sun Arcobaleno was gravely silent as he took in the information presented on the paper clenched in the teen’s hands. As much as he wanted to disprove what Varia spy had found, the small hitman couldn’t. The CEDEF insignia is right there and can’t be mimicked unless one uses Cloud Flames. The Flames covering the paper indicated that this is truly a Flame produced copy, not a Mist-induced illusion or an amateurish attempt at forgery. Judging by the amount of Flames that remain, it’s been only a few days since this copy was made. How has that idiot been keeping something as big as this under wraps for so long? Does Nono even know about any of this at all?

“Unfortunately…it’s real, Tsuna… Iemitsu, you have a lot to answer for…” Reborn said, adjusting the brim of his fedora so it would ominously shadow his eyes.

What Tsuna had in his hands was Basil’s birth certificate…

And right there on the line that indicated the name of the fifteen-year-old boy’s biological father was none other than Sawada Iemitsu.

ʅ(°ヮ°)ʃ

Not many people know this, but the Mafia World’s reach isn’t exclusively within the country of Italy. From the Chinese Triads to the Japanese Yakuza and even all the way to the American Mobsters, the world of the Cosa Nostra is basically like its own pocket dimension hidden beneath the noses of the public. So it’s not much of a surprise to find that the majority of Varia members have backgrounds in the Mafia World or at least had connections to it prior to joining up. Considering the Mafia World is kept separated from civilians for obvious reasons, it’s actually pretty easy for someone to tell a Mafioso from a “normal” person if one knows what to look for.

Constant exposure to the typical mafia chaos made Hadrian conclude that an average Mafioso’s mindset is vastly different when compared to a random civilian on the street, not unlike how a wizard’s brain is operated differently when compared to a Muggle’s brain. After all, “normal” people don’t carry around some sort of object they are able to use as a weapon in a pinch nor do they not bat an eye when people suddenly combust into colorful Flames. And the teen highly doubted that an “average” person wouldn’t casually complain about having to deal with the onerous chore of getting rid a body while playing Super Smash Bros with their fellow Mafioso on their Nintendo Switch.

This disconnect between Mafia values and civilian values has caused a lot of problems on specific missions: unnecessary deaths due to too many witnesses, increased amounts of easily avoided casualties, a countless array of compromised spies, and an untold amount of paperwork and migraines just to deal with them all. Because Hadrian was formerly a civilian, the teen knows how to navigate through society without drawing attention to himself, making him a valuable asset on missions that take place in the civilian world. Add that to his ability to utilize his Flames, and you have a rare gem in the works.

And it’s situation like these that requires Hadrian’s skills. Luckily, Iemitsu was completely out of the house, taking with him his apprentice along to deal with an enemy Famiglia a few towns over. According to Reborn, the Varia Officer has about another day to get himself settled before the CEDEF Boss catches wind of his presence and tries to dispose of the Cloud using some trumped-up charge as an excuse. If the teen plays his cards right, he can kill multiple birds with one stone just by helping out Tsuna this way.

Sawada Nana, mother of Sawada “Tsuna” Tsunayoshi and wife of Sawada Iemitsu, is a simple housewife. For years, she’s been in a relationship of lies and living a life of deceit thanks to the actions (or rather inactions) of her own husband. To be honest, the teen actually felt a little sorry for the woman. Because now he’s about to smash the “sunshine-and-rainbows” reality she’s been living in. Whether or not, this woman will find the strength to recover after this is all up to her.

After he warily knocked on the front door of the Sawada residence, it opened up to reveal the smiling face of the housewife herself. “Oh! Well, hello there. Who are you?” She said amicably.

Hadrian bowed to her politely and smiled charmingly. “Ciao, signora-san. My name is Hadrian Temperanza. I’m something of a co-worker of Iemitsu, but from a different department so I doubt he’s even met me face-to-face.” The young teen then handed her a fake Varia business card as proof of his claims. “May I please come in? There’s something important that I would like to discuss with you.”

“Ara ara, how wonderful to see someone from Iemitsu’s workplace! And such a polite young man as well. If only my Tsu-kun is the same. Oh, well. It’s not like he can help it. That’s just how my adorable dame son is after all.” Nana said airily as she took the card. “Oh! Where are my manners? Please make yourself at home while I make us some tea.” The housewife said as she let the green-eyed Varia Officer into her home without a second thought.

Thankfully, Bianchi had taken the children out to play in the park so their little talk won’t be disturbed. Dancing her way into the kitchen, she went about to brew up some tea as her guest sat down at the small family’s dinner table.

As the teen removed his shoes, Hadrian had to bite his lip from snapping, “ _It’s not his fault that he’s like that! You wouldn’t even be talking about your own son like that if your useless husband had some godforsaken common sense!_ ” He forced himself to rein in his protective Sky instincts towards the younger teen he’d just met.

“…Um… signora-san… I’m actually non-binary so...ah…” The dark-haired Cloudy- Sky hesitantly corrected her and trailed off at the end. The change in subject effectively took his mind off of the goddamn Flame Seal on the boy as he mentally prepared himself for the usual reactions to his gender identity.

He may not show it, but it always irks him whenever someone automatically assumes his gender based on his appearance. Just because he looks “feminine” doesn’t automatically make him a girl, and just because he has a penis and testicles between his legs doesn’t mean that he should identify as “male.”

“Oh! …Then should I use ‘they’, ‘theirs’, and ‘them’ or do you prefer something different?” Nana simply chirped without changing a beat as she served the teen his tea.

The housewife had heard about people like him. Individuals who don’t feel comfortable being addressed by anything other than the gender they identify with. Occasionally, she’d come across them every now and then. The woman had always thought that they were pleasant, perfectly nice people so she ignored all the nasty rumors her distasteful, bad-mouthing neighbors would spread about them. Besides, one can’t help who they are after all. Why should she treat someone differently simply because they “don’t love the right way” or they “don’t behave or act naturally”?

“…’He’, ‘his’, and ‘him’ please … Not that I have anything against ‘they’, ‘theirs’, and ‘them’. It’s just that I’ve been so used to using male pronouns that I still haven’t felt the need to change how I referred myself.” The teen replied with a slight tone of relief. Now he really felt bad about doing this to Tsuna’s mother. It’s so rare to see anyone so accepting. He prayed that this news doesn’t hurt her too much.

“Signora-san… I work for Nono-san’s youngest son. You might remember Nono-san as Iemitsu-san’s boss.” Hadrian informed the woman, his mind whirling on how he can break the news to the woman.

“Really? Then what are you doing all the way over here then? Is my husband doing alright? Surely, nothing bad has happened to his job, has it?” Nana said, the tone in her voice layered with a touch of concern for her beloved spouse.

Hadrian chewed his lip as he carefully thought about what he is going to say. “Actually… what I am about to tell you is about your husband. You see while I was researching for a project of mine, I found out about something that might change how you see him. I got into contact with your son and his home tutor, and informed them of my findings. After that, the two of them have asked me to break the news to you because they knew that you wouldn’t believe them if it had came from your son.”

A half-truth. The babyfied World’s Greatest Hitman had came pretty close to blowing his brains out at point blank with his signature Chaos Shot. If it wasn’t for Tsuna acting on his Hyper Intuition and begged his tutor to hear Hadrian’s side of the story, the dark-haired teen would’ve been executed on the spot under the suspicions of being a traitor. So as “punishment” for being loosely “AWOL,” the green-eyed Varia Officer was forced to become Nana’s bodyguard until after their conflict with the Varia.

In a fit of sadism, the temporary bodyguard “innocently” suggested coming clean to Nana, seeing as the younger Sky was uncomfortable with lying to his mother like his “sperm-donor” had. After all, Sawada Nana may be a civilian, but as a wife of a Mafioso and the mother of a Vongola Decimo candidate, she is automatically exempt from the Vindice-enforced Omertà. Destroying Iemitsu’s fantasy about his perfect civilian family was a petty revenge against his “father” that the brunet Decimo candidate had agreed with even though the younger Sky was still unsure with himself after the revelation.

“This discovery might not sit well with you and Tsuna-kun realizes this. He wants me to tell you this… ‘I’m so sorry, Kaa-san… But I’ll make it up to you soon.’” Hadrian warned Nana.

Without another word, the teen reached into his suitcase and took out a folder containing the specific documents that would ultimately damn her husband. He then slid it over to the housewife so she could read what’s inside and mentally prepared himself for the woman’s eventual outburst.

As the dainty housewife’s eyes took in the information presented in front of her, her warm smile froze on her face and the light behind her chocolate brown eyes darkened with a flurry of emotions. Like a rock hitting a glass sculpture, shattering the painstakingly made work of art into hundreds of irreparable pieces in one fell swoop, Nana’s rose-colored world fell apart.

ʅ(°ヮ°)ʃ

Meanwhile back at the Varia Headquarters, Hadrian’s entire Cloud Division was in a panic over their still missing Commander. Needless to say, none of the other Officers were too happy about it.

“WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN YOU USELESS SCUM STILL CAN’T FIND HIM?!!” A roar of rage sounded throughout the mansion.

“I-I-I’m s-s-sorry, B-Boss! W-We can’t f-find him a-anywhere! We ch-checked every nook a-a-and cr-cranny and s-still no s-sign of him!” One of Cat Sìth’s subordinates reported fearfully before scurrying off with a girlish shriek as he ducked a few Wrath Flame bullets that shaved off a few inches of his hair.

This morning, Xanxus woke up expecting breakfast from his Cloud, only to find the teen’s kitchen fully stocked but as devoid of life as a morgue. Technically it’s Hadrian’s job to handle all the meals of everyone in the Varia, but he occasionally takes “breaks” that normally lasts about a day or so. During those times when he does, everyone usually orders take-out or simply eat out (much to their misery). Nine times out of ten, the Cloud Officer would be back in his kitchen cooking up a meal by the next day. However, this time, the Varia’s residential wildcat has been missing for _three whole days_.

Only a single piece of paper tacked onto the chef’s refrigerator explained the reason why.

_To whomever is reading this,_

_I will be in Japan for a week at most. During this time, if you wish to use the kitchen to make your meals until my return, then I will expect everything to be the same as the way I left it. But if I am forced to clean up after you or I find that my kitchen is in less than satisfactory condition…_

**_You better start praying to whatever God you believe in because let me tell you this... I won’t be listening._ **

_Sincerely,_

_Cat Sìth_ ღゝ◡╹)ノ♡

“Bad news. The prince has checked Cat Sìth’s office. The Empress’s gone too.” Belphegor announced upon his return from the Cloud Division office (read: Hedwig’s shrine).

“Oh~ poor thing. She must’ve decided to go search for Hari-chan herself.” Lussuria said worryingly, concerned for his petite friend and his beautiful pet owl.

“Either something’s happened to Cat Sìth, or the bird got impatient and decided that we were taking too long in searching for her master.” Mammon concluded. Hedwig is Hadrian’s Flame-bonded animal partner, not unlike that of the Mist Officer and their frog, Fantasma. Given the close bond between the two, it was only a matter of time anyways before the owl took off to find the Cloud Officer.

“If that fucking bird is worried enough about the kitten to fly all the way to another country, then what the hell are we all still standing around here for?!” The dark-haired man yelled out in frustration as he gripped his shot of vodka to the point of cracking.

“But, Boss, what about the Vongola Half-Rings? Squalo’s still on the only other jet carrying the other half of the rings.” Levi asked, reminding him of their original objective.

Xanxus let out an animalistic growl and threw his shot glass at his Lightning’s forehead so hard it not only knocked him out but also left an impressive dent. “FUCK THE RINGS!! The moment the shark trash finally gets back, we’re heading straight to Japan and get back the fucking kitten!!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Annnnnd shit’s about to go down in the next chapter~ Sorry for the long wait, and thank you so much, everyone, for your everlasting patience. This arc is giving me problems. I’ve been having trouble on writing out not only Hadrian’s role and reactions to the Ring Battles, but also how things will deviate from the canon now that we have Hadrian in the picture. I’m not too confident about this chapter, but it’s the best I have. I hope this will satisfy you for now until the next chapter because summer vacation is ending and classes will be starting soon, meaning I won’t be updating as often as I usually have these past few months.
> 
> Iemitsu and Basil: It’s a common Iemitsu-bashing trope that Basil is actually his illegitimate son with his assistant, Oregano. Some fanfics I’ve read have made it that he was a result of a one-night stand affair or even a failed result of obtaining a Sky heir for the next Don Vongola throne (because Basil has Rain Flames instead Sky). 
> 
> Signora-san: I know it sounds kinda weird here, but here me out. Apparently, in order to join the Varia, a member must at least know 7 languages. Here, Japanese is one of Hadrian’s required languages, but I wanted to imply that he’s still learning. I wonder if I should make this another quirk of his. Would this weird usage of Japanese honorifics endear him to you guys? Or would it annoy you to death? Let me know in your reviews if it does.
> 
> Tsuna’s revenge: Since Iemitsu has been trying to keep his wife and son out of the mafia for years only to come back now because Tsuna is about to inherit the seat of Vongola Decimo, leaving all of his father’s efforts worthless and completely unnecessary. On top of that, Basil is Tsuna’s older half-brother, whom Iemitsu had spent more time with than his younger legitimately-born son. It’s the straw that broke the camel’s back so Tsuna decided to repay the favor by destroying the very thing that Iemitsu had desperately tried to preserve. Not only that, but letting his mother into the loop will help her so she would know exactly what her family has been up and be more prepare for what’s to come. It also helps that Tsuna decided to trust Hadrian, a civilian-turned-Mafioso, to protect her for him while he’s training to face the Varia and even lend in a hand as well.
> 
> Hadrian’s letter: Ah, DragonBall Z Abridged~ TeamFourStar certainly does amazing work when it comes to comedy~ In case anyone is wondering where that bolded quote is taken from, go check out DBZ Abridged Episode 54: Trials and Tribulations.


	11. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Then, Tsuna slammed the window to his room open and poked his head out. “WOULD YOU PEOPLE PLEASE KEEP IT DOWN FOR EIGHT MORE HOURS?! I AM TRYING TO SLEEP!! AND SHUT YOUR MOUTH, REBORN!! I WILL BE SLEEPING IN FOR ONCE, AND THERE’S NOTHING YOU CAN SAY THAT WON’T CHANGE MY MIND!!” The young brunet yelled out angrily before slamming his window shut and locking it so he can get back to sleep.
> 
> Everyone remained quiet for a whole minute until Reborn broke the silence.
> 
> “…I didn’t even get the chance to say anything.” The babyfied hitman muttered unhappily.
> 
> “Well, you can blame the famed Vongola Hyper Intuition for that.” Dino replied to him with good humor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “I eat cake because it’s somebody’s birthday somewhere.” (8/26/17) (╬ಠ益ಠ)

Trident Shamal remembered when he had first met Hadrian. The then fifteen-year-old kid used to be a scrawny, bespectacled waif of a teen. One look at him and any doctor worth their salt can easily pick out the signs of someone slowly recovering from childhood malnutrition and neglect. However, it wasn’t the sight of him that made the teen one of his more memorable patients.

It was the fact that he reeked of Discorded Flames that it made Shamal’s stomach turn just from being near him. A large part of the reason why the doctor kept turning Hadrian away wasn’t because of the teen’s biological sex, but because he didn’t trust himself not to give into his instincts and inject a lethal disease into the kid and then leave him for dead.

So for three whole weeks, the kid stubbornly insisted that Shamal was the only one who can treat his condition.

The first week, Hadrian would just show up at his front door, repeatedly asking him politely.

The second week, the kid came bearing homemade food and money as a bribe. He accepted the food, but not the money. Shamal hated to admit it, but his taste buds were spoiled thanks to the brat’s heavenly cooking.

By the third week, the green-eyed teen’s patience finally dried up. He completely stopped giving the doctor food and began delivering threats to do bodily harm to his person. For three days, Shamal simply ignored them because he figured there was no way the brat would carry them out on the one person he needs to fix his condition.

Then he woke up one morning to find himself stripped down to his underwear and tightly strapped to his bed while Hadrian holding a bottle of sulfuric acid in one hand and a pipette in the other, which the kid had the gall to threaten to slowly apply to his groin area should he still refuse.

“It’s not like you actually _need_ that part of your anatomy to survive. I still need you to be functional after all.” Hadrian said to him as the sun’s glare reflected off of his glasses, making him look impressively scary for someone as short and skinny as him.

The next day, Shamal brought Hadrian to one of the Mafia World’s hospitals, where the doctor used his connections to access all the equipment and machinery needed to examine the issue with the teen’s Flames.

The results that came shocked him to his core.

It wasn’t the fact that the kid is an Active Sky with secondary Cloud Flames. It also wasn’t that the kid was somehow able to access HDWM despite never being trained how to properly use his Flames beforehand. It definitely wasn’t the fact that Shamal has an _unattached civilian Sky_ as a patient who is somehow able to run around all of Italy without any Famiglia taking notice of his presence.

It was the freaking parasitic Discorded Flames inside hidden in the kid’s lightning-shaped scar on his fucking forehead.

It took Shamal a total of fifty-six hours to successfully remove the parasite without killing the kid or irreparably shattering his Flames. By the time Hadrian finally recovered from his ordeal, the end results were much more noticeable.

Without the parasite leeching off of him and doing all sorts of damage on his person, the teen became noticeably healthier than he was prior to his treatment. He put on more weight, shot up a few centimeters, and according to him, he no longer needed a heavy prescription for his improved eyesight and can comprehend stuff much easier now that he doesn’t have that parasite imbedded so close to his brain.

After the procedure, Shamal took the opportunity to examine the remains of the parasite, which brought forth more questions than answers. Originally, the doctor had surmised that an enemy Flame User had Flame Raped Hadrian, implanting a sample of their Flames on the kid that would slowly kill him off over time. However, that wasn’t even the case.

Turns out, there were Flames of two different people involved, but what’s astonishing about the situation is that both individuals are Latent yet somehow they were able to take their dormant Flames and use them to this extent which shouldn’t even be possible!

The first and most obvious came from a male, and old enough to be the kid’s grandfather. However, it was so unstable with Discord that Shamal can barely get much information on what type of person it came from. The second, on the other hand, provided a heck of a lot more information than the other. Shamal can even tell what went down as the Flame was implemented.

The person with the Latent Storm and Lightning Flames was female, a good half-decade older than Hadrian when she first put down her unique protection, and most likely dead by now. Somehow, the moment this lady died, she literally tore out her own Flames using something and used them to create a temporary shield to protect the kid. Storm to act offensively and disintegrate whatever or whoever it is that threatened Hadrian and Lightning as an offensive shield to protect whatever attacked the kid.

However, post-mortem Flames dissipate into nothingness very rapidly. So while Hadrian had protection, there was only so much time that it would last until the protection starts to fail, which would explain why the parasite came to be. Whatever it was that attacked the kid, the backlash apparently damaged them so severely that their unstable Flame shards instinctively tried to seek out healthier and stronger Flames to absorb and corrupt, but the remaining scraps of the woman’s protective Flames immediately locked onto the threat towards their charge and became a make-shift barrier between the boy’s Flames and the Discorded ones.

For years, both Flames waged war against each other, being fed through Hadrian’s own Flames to keep them going. But as time passed, the woman’s Flames slowly start to fade away as they are no longer replenished due to their User’s death while the Discorded Flames remain strong as their User is still alive (much to Shamal’s disgust).

So the doctor took his findings to his patient in his hospital room hoping to get answers from the kid. But instead of explaining, all Hadrian said was, “If the Mafia World has their Omertà, then where I originally came from has their own. So unless you literally want all of your memories taken away, then get rid of everything. Results, papers, the samples you’ve taken. _Everything_. None of this ever happened.” Because of the grave tone the teen had used and how serious he was, Shamal reluctantly dropped the manner and complied.

Three days later, Hadrian Temperanza checked out of the hospital after being treated for a minor Flame-related illness. A day after, a sizable donation was anonymous made to the hospital. A week later, Shamal would receive various containers of food consisting of a wide array of offerings like Kofta kebab burgers, curry risotto omurice, and karaage rolls (Japanese fried chicken) for a whole month.

Nearly two years after that, the cute Varia “girl” the doctor had been hitting on turned out to be the same unforgettable kid he had treated. Once Hadrian was cured of the Medusa disease Shamal had inflicted on him, the brat then turned around and kicked him in the balls. Then the kid stood over him as he writhed in agony and demand if he is able to remove Flame Seals.

For the record, Trident Shamal did not accept Hadrian Temperanza’s offer because he wanted to avoid further injury to his genitals…

He only did it so that he can eat his zuppa di pesce alla Romana (Roman-style fish soup) again.

ʅ(°ヮ°)ʃ

“Oh, good. You’re still alive. I figured you’re still too Dame to die so pathetically.” Hadrian commented dryly as he, Reborn, and Shamal stood over the prone form of a fourteen-year old boy lying on top of his bed.

Despite his mind and body recovering from the overwhelming rush of his newly released Flames, Tsuna was able to let out a healthy groan as a reply. The removal was absolutely intense.

Shamal, being a doctor specializing in Flame-related illnesses, helped direct the whole process (which to his opinion was way easier than tackling Hadrian’s case) and made sure that each delicate procedure was handled safely so the boy doesn’t slip into Discord. The older teen supplied the Sky Flames needed to slightly weaken the Seal while Tsuna’s home tutor provided the control the Cloudy-Sky Varia agent didn’t have over his primary Sky Flames using his Sun Flames to “paint” a guide for the dark-haired teen as well as healing some of the damage the Seal’s been causing the boy over the years. With their combined efforts, Tsuna was able to push his Sealed Sky Flames through and overpower his Flame Seal, completely shattering the damnable thing.

The success of the operation showed as one by one the boy’s now fully Bonded Guardians all gravitated towards him as the beacon of Sky Flames gradually subsided with each of their appearance.

Gokudera practically fell down to his knees beside Tsuna as he was swamped by the sudden rush of emotions that came with the Harmonization between him and his Sky. Next, a Flame Drunk Lambo practically stumbled into the room and then proceeded to climb up onto Tsuna’s bed to cuddle up to his Sky. Within mere minutes, everyone heard a loud gleeful cry of “EXTRREEEEEMMMMEEE RUUUUUSSSHHH!!!!” as Ryohei had immediately abandoned his training with Colonello to rush to Tsuna’s side upon sensing the aftereffects of their Bond. Yamamoto himself also dropped everything and suddenly appeared at the Sawada house, casually letting himself into the boy’s house before making a beeline toward his Sky’s room. Later on, Dino had also dropped by telling them that his student had suddenly bolted from their sparring session and after searching for a while, he found Hibari peacefully napping on the balcony nearest where his Sky was recovering from the influx of his Flames.

All the boy was missing was his Mist. But according to Tsuna, he can barely make out a subtle but barely noticeable trace of familiar Mist Flames coming from a block over where the Sawada residence is. The person cautiously responded to their new Bond by poking and prodding as the boy’s Flames poked back playfully. However, rather than Mukuro as the brunet originally thought, he described the Flames as feeling like “two compatible people inside of one person.”

With all of the Sky’s Guardians present, Tsuna’s Flames can finally calm down as his friends reveled in the sensation of being blissfully “whole” thanks to him.

“Will Tsuna be okay? This is…this is normal, right?” Nana asked worryingly as they all made their way downstairs. Tsuna’s friends on the other hand stayed behind to be with their Sky, so the rest of them left the room to leave the boys to themselves.

“He’s fine. Think of his current condition kind of like a fever. A little bit of rest for the next few days, and he’ll be up and ready to do some more training.” Shamal reassured the mother of their mutual patient.

The dainty woman sighed in relief and smiled cheerfully. “In that case, I’d better have his favorite foods ready for him once he gets better.” He then turned to the teen with an expectant look in her eyes. “Hari-kun, you told me you love to cook for your friends, right? So will you be a dear and help me out in the kitchen? With this many people in the house, I could use the extra hand.”

Hadrian slightly stiffened up at the housewife’s request but nonetheless agreed. “I… don’t normally cook with other people… Maybe just this once, I can… tolerate having to help.” He replied to her apprehensively. Up until now, it was always him that did all the cooking. Never before did someone asked to _help them_ in the kitchen.

Before the two could even take a step towards the kitchen, the front door burst open revealing the form of Iemitsu and his apprentice, Basil.

“NANA~! MY LOVE~! I’m HOOOOMMMEEE~!” The man shouted happily as he ran into the living room with his arms wide open expecting his beloved wife to come running to his embrace.

However, after a while of just hugging empty air, he realized that the woman he loves wasn’t coming to greet her devoted husband. Snapping out of his love-induced haze, he took a careful look around the living room and saw the housewife in one end of the roomful of people.

On her sweet face was an expression full of mixed emotions: anger, despair, sorrow, devastation and worst of all…

Betrayal.

ʅ(°ヮ°)ʃ

When Nana finally saw her husband with his young “apprentice,” Basil, trailing behind him, it was just too much for her to take. Seeing the young boy standing beside her husband forced her to see all the miniscule similarities she didn’t previously detect. There was no denying the obvious evidence now.

For years, she had always wondered why Iemitsu was always away for so long. Overseas construction work? Please! Nana had suspected from the very beginning that her husband was keeping secrets and respected his privacy. So out of love and affection for him, she waited patiently for the day that he would finally come clean to her about everything. She waited. And waited. And waited…

She kept waiting for Iemitsu even as she went through her entire pregnancy with Tsuna alone. She kept waiting for him to show up and listen to Tsuna’s first words and witness their precious son take his first steps. She kept waiting for him even after her heart broke when her little four-year-old Tsuna looked up at his mother with his sad brown eyes and asked her, “Mama, why don’t Tsuna has a Papa?”

True, she may not have been the best mother for her son. She was self-conscious enough to admit that. But at least, she tried, which was more than what she can say for Iemitsu. She tried in what little ways she can to encourage and support her son to be at least content with his life. She tried to cheer him up every time her Tsu-kun was mistreated by his classmates and teachers and not make such a big deal of it lest it could cause more problems than things already are. She tried to be patient and prayed with all her heart that her little Tsu-kun will eventually find that one person who can look past his Dame-ness and find it in themselves to love and support her baby boy. She even tried to ignore that fact that Tsuna is following his father’s footsteps in keeping secrets from his own mother ever since his babyfied home tutor became a part of their little household.

With Tsuna, he at least has the decency to feel guilty about always lying to her, so it made the experience more bearable. Iemitsu, however, did no such thing. The tone in his voice, the look in his eyes, even his body posture. Nana can tell that he fully expects his wife and son to always be that happy-go-lucky family he’s envisioned since their marriage no matter what happens.

Nana, on the other hand, felt differently. And it’s about time that she confronts her husband about the Mafia World. Starting with her stepson, Basil.

“I…Iemitsu… just for once… please be honest with me?” She whispered as she held back her tears.

The blond man blinked in confusion. “Nana, wha-… What are you-?”

“Iemitsu, please! …Can you just tell me the truth for at least 5 seconds…? That’s all I ask of you… please…” Nana begged.

Slowly, he lowered his arms and looked at his wife seriously. “What do you want to know?”

Steeling herself, she gathered up all her courage and asked, “…what is Basil-kun to you?”

Immediately, the CEDEF began laughing nervously and decided to try to bluff his way around her question. “…Nana, don’t you remember? Basil is my apprentice. I’m training him so that one day he will-”

“OH FOR THE LOVE OF KAMI!!! CUT THE CRAP, IEMITSU!! I ALREADY KNOW EVERYTHING!!!” She screamed at her husband, ignoring the tears falling from her face.

He suddenly choked on air in shock. “…E-Everything? W-What do you-” The CEDEF sputtered.

“I know about the Mafia and the Vongola. I know that you Sealed Tsu-kun’s Flames away. I know that you are the advisor to the current Vongola Boss. I know that you sent Reborn so that Tsu-kun can be trained to take over as the next Boss. And most of all… I know that Basil-kun is actually your son!!!” Nana sobbed out.

“…M-Master?” The young boy in question stumbled in shock and looked at his supposed father with a look of betrayal.

Growing up, he had always thought that he was an orphan that the CEDEF had taken in because of his Active Flames and was raised with Oregano and Iemitsu as his foster parents on paper. Suddenly, a thought hit him. If the CEDEF Boss is his biological father, then that means that Tsuna is his half-brother! Without another thought, he quickly ran upstairs towards Tsuna’s room.

Iemitsu, on the other hand, could care less about Basil’s treachery. He was more concerned with a more important manner. “Nana, who told you all of this?”

“Don’t change the subject! Why should I tell you when you haven’t answered me?” Nana said.

The man walked forward and held his wife’s shoulders tightly. “You weren’t supposed to know all of that! It’s illegal for civilians to get involved with the Mafia! Now stop protecting whoever it is and just tell me the bastard who put your life in danger!” He insisted as his grip on her tightened even more, causing the housewife let out a tiny pained sound.

“Madre di Dios. If that’s what you’re concerned about, then you shouldn’t have married her in the first place.” Hadrian drawled, interrupting the argument with his own two-bits before Iemitsu hurts the woman any further.

The man quickly let go of Nana and whirled around to face the teen. “What did you say?” He snarled.

“She’s been exempt from the Omertà for years. You of all people should know that. But for whatever godforsaken reason, you decided to keep the truth away from your family and even go as far as doom your own son to a life of misery by crippling his Flames.” The Varia Cloud said with narrowed eyes.

“I did it because they’re civilians! There weren’t supposed to get involved with the Mafia.” Iemitsu argued.

“Look how that worked out. Your wife is disillusioned, and the way Tsuna-kun is now, your son is a shoo-in to become a bloody puppet leader. Question, why didn’t you have Tsuna trained to control his Flames? If someone had been there to teach him how to utilize his Flames properly, then he could’ve had the chance to a normal life. But you went and fucking destroyed that with that goddamn Flame Seal!” Hadrian snapped back.

“YOU DON’T EVEN HAVE THE RIGHT TO CRITISIZE MY ACTION!!” Iemitsu roared angrily.

“Do you know the bloody damage you’ve fucking caused to your own flesh-and-blood, you big cunt!? Are you trying to kill off yet another bloody Vongola Decimo candidate?! I’ve read your bloody reports, that boy was heading down towards the path of no-return. You could’ve indirectly murdered your son! You stupid bastard son of a whore!!” The dark-haired teen shouted.

“How do you know about all of this? Who are you? What’s a filthy traitorous rat like you doing here?” The blond man growled lowly.

Hadrian smiled ferally. “Take a good guess, you wanker. Actually… why don’t I just give you this little hint?” Closing his eyes, he concentrated and carefully reached deep down within himself to grasp his hidden Sky Flames. He then brought it forward and allowed himself to flare his Flames enough to expose himself as a Sky in disguise.

“B-B-But how…” Iemitsu stammered stupidly as his eyes widened with shock.

“Hadrian, here, has had more practice with his secondary Cloud Flames than with his primary Sky Flames. He’s been subconsciously hiding his own Sky Flames by propagating the his output of Cloud Flames so people are fooled into thinking he’s purely a Cloud unless one knows what to look for.” Reborn took the opportunity to explain to the man with an evil smirk.

Hadrian’s control over his secondary Flames is almost on genius levels. It was no wonder the petite chef was able to lay low long enough for the Varia to take notice of him and claim him for themselves. For that very reason was why made him Varia Quality enough to become their members.

It’s an amazing technique that allowed the teen to be able to walk amongst civilians and Mafiosi without anyone trying to accost him. If Hadrian were to walk on the streets as a Sky, then he’d been pounced on by some power-hungry Famiglia a long time ago. Playing as a pure Cloud worked well for the teen because there’s less of a chance of being kidnapped. After all, it was universally known that trying to trap a Cloud is downright suicidal. Only a fool would dare risk trying in vain to chain one down, especially one who can easily snap your backbone into splinters with their bare hands or propagate your very cells to the point where they become cancerous tumors.

“H-H-HE’S A SKY?! THAT’S IMPOSSIBLE!! THE ONLY PERSON WITH SKY FLAMES IN THE ENTIRE VARIA IS XANXUS!” Iemitsu yelled out in disbelief.

The Cloudy-Sky scoffed at the man’s ignorance. “Shows what you know, twat.”

Realizing the implications of Hadrian’s appearance, the CEDEF snarled lowly. “What have you done with my son?”

“We fixed him.” Hadrian proclaimed proudly. “The stupid Flame Seal was a total bitch-and-a-half to break, but thankfully, my Flames were just enough to weaken the Seal to allow Tsuna-kun can break the thing himself.”

The Sealing a Flame User, especially a young Active Sky such as five-year-old Tsuna, was a good one-way ticket to the Vendicare Prison. When Hadrian first found out during his long flight to Japan, he wanted to hunt down and give Iemitsu prostate and testicular cancer with his Cloud Flames for even suggesting the damn method in the first place. Sadly, the teen couldn’t because Nono himself had gotten full permission from the Vindice to do so.

Turns out, the Mafia World at the time, was dealing with a case where an unknown serial killer. The Discorded Flame User had gone rampant, killing and arranging the deaths of countless of Mafia heirs, targeting Skies in particular. Given the timing of the situation, Hadrian surmised that shortly after losing his eldest son and Decimo candidate to the mass murderer, Timoteo caved into Iemitsu’s insistence in a moment of weakness while he was still mourning his son. After that, the Vongola Don’s grief only increased, allowing things in the Vongola to go further downhill. The insane serial killer was eventually caught and publically executed by the Vindice, but not before all three of the Nono Vongola’s sons had already met their deaths by the hands of the culprit. All within the same year to boot.

And the worst part… the CEDEF had been responsible for the protection of the Vongola candidates but failed pathetically at their jobs. If Hadrian hadn’t known any better, he would’ve assumed that Iemitsu wanted to arrange things so that Tsuna would become the Vongola Decimo, but with the Flame Seal in place, the boy would’ve ended up being a figurehead ruler of the Mafia World’s largest and most influential Famiglia. Thankfully that wasn’t the case. It was just Iemitsu’s sheer incompetence that had made standards low in the CEDEF.

All of the sudden, everyone became shocked when Iemitsu violently lashed out at Hadrian in a rage and punched the teen in the face, sending him crashing straight through the wall and out onto the front yard.

“IEMITSU!!” Nana screamed out in horror as her husband jumped through the hole he created, dropping his pickaxe nearby on the front lawn before continuing his vicious assault on the Varia agent.

Before the man’s next punch crushed his ribcage, Hadrian quickly got up and rolled out of the way. Quickly getting up, the teen began bobbing and weaving away from Iemitsu’s fists. Blocking a punch aimed towards his stomach with his forearms, he nimbly jumped up out of the blond man’s reach and then rammed both his feet on the CEDEF Boss’ face with as much force as he can as he let gravity take care of the rest, effectively breaking the man’s nose with a loud satisfying crack. Using Iemitsu’s face as a springboard, the teen back flipped away from the furious man to gain some distance between them. Bloody-faced and seething with rage, the man brought out his pickaxe and then charged towards the teen with a guttural cry like an angered bull, aiming to bludgeon the Cloudy-Sky to death with his weapon.

“Shit! He’s lost his senses! We need to stop him, kora!” Colonello shouted as Reborn had Leon transform into a gun so he can shoot a knock-out dart into Iemitsu. Dino and Shamal followed his lead and jumped out onto the yard ready to subdue the angry CEDEF Boss.

However, no one got the chance to interfere because a white blur suddenly appeared and slammed into Iemitsu.

“What the fuc-? Get it off of me! Wha- WHAAAAAAA!!!” The blond man cried, waving his axe around hoping it will hit whatever was attacking him. However, he ended up tripping over his feet and fell over. Iemitsu then hit his head on the trunk of one of the trees, effectively knocking the man out cold.

“Hedwig? What are you doing here in Japan? You’re supposed to be back at HQ!” Hadrian said in astonishment.

The owl simply hooted smugly and glared at her owner from her place on Iemitsu’s prone form, completely insulted that her master didn’t expect that Hedwig would come to his aid when he needs her.

Dino let out a low whistle at all the heavy injuries Iemitsu sustained from the snowy owl’s attack and the red decorating her previously snow white feathers. “Wow, that is one bloodthirsty owl you trained.”

“Che. If you ask me, some pets take after their masters too much.” Shamal grumbled quietly so that neither the bird nor the teen can hear.

“Varia Quality, that one. I hope Falco knows what he’s getting into.” Reborn complimented.

“Huh, what do you mean, kora?” Colonello asked his fellow Arcobaleno in confusion, completely missing that the Rain’s animal partner was looking at the white owl with hearts in his eyes.

“Hedwig! You came! I’m going to make you beef stew with bacon garnish for dinner tonight!” Hadrian greeted her cheerfully and tackled his beloved owl in a hug. He hoped that showering her with affection might appease her anger.

However, Hedwig was having none of it and proceeded to scold her master with a ferocity of an scolding mother as she repeatedly slap him with her wings. “Ow! I’m sorry! I only meant for it to be a short trip! It is not like I expected to get caught!” The Varia teen defended himself.

Then, Tsuna slammed the window to his room open and poked his head out. “WOULD YOU PEOPLE PLEASE KEEP IT DOWN FOR EIGHT MORE HOURS?! I AM TRYING TO SLEEP!! AND SHUT YOUR MOUTH, REBORN!! I WILL BE SLEEPING IN FOR ONCE, AND THERE’S NOTHING YOU CAN SAY THAT WOULD CHANGE MY MIND!!” The young brunet yelled out angrily before slamming his window shut and locking it so he can get back to sleep.

Everyone remained quiet for a whole minute until Reborn broke the silence.

“…I didn’t even get the chance to say anything.” The babyfied hitman muttered unhappily.

“Well, you can blame the famed Vongola Hyper Intuition for that.” Dino replied to him with good humor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this chapter answers a few questions from the reviews and covers one of the biggest plot-holes I’ve been struggling with. I hope this lengthy chapter and double omakes meets your approval. The Varia will make an appearance next chapter for sure. Hopefully, I can get the Ring Battles started soon afterwards.
> 
> Hadrian vs. Iemitsu: Yeah, the fight scene sucked balls in my opinion. Before anyone asks, the reason why Iemitsu didn’t summon up his HDWM is because he, like everyone else, assumed that Hadrian is just a low-ranking member of the Varia (What? Did you really think that Hadrian is naïve enough to tell them everything right off the bat?). Therefore, Iemitsu thinks that it shouldn’t take much effort in getting rid of him. Also, don’t forget that Hadrian is still learning how to fighting with his Flames. Keep in mind that it takes years to fully master one’s Flames. While Hadrian may be Varia Quality, he’s only about halfway there, and he hasn’t even touched upon what his Sky Flames can do as well. So him going up against a veteran Flame User like Iemitsu like a BAMF is too Gary-Stu and unrealistic for me. Plus I wanted to try writing out Hadrian using hit-and-run tactics to see if that fighting style suits him.


	12. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Varia finally makes their appearance in Namimori! Chaos and drama insues~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “Friday is my second favorite F word! My first is food…definitely food.” (9/4/17)

While flying to Namimori to retrieve their missing Cloud Officer, Xanxus and his Guardians were faced with a certain problem.

“VOI!!! What’s taking that fucking chef with the shitty Boss’ dinner?!” Squalo yelled out impatiently as he exited the kitchen area built in the jet, only to find their Sun Officer frantically juggling multiple meals at once. As for the rest of the Officers, they had turned their seats around and arranged themselves into a circle so they can play poker to pass the time.

“He had a mental breakdown and bailed. Lussuria’s trying to fill in since rest of us can burn water.” Mammon drawled as he levitated another card to his hand.

Levi sniffed arrogantly as he squinted down at his cards. “Pathetic weakling. After only the 6th time the Boss threw his disgusting food back at his face, he stole a parachute and jumped out using the emergency exit.”

“Great! Now what are we going to serve?! At this rate, not even Gordon fucking Ramsey himself can satisfy that bastard’s spoiled palate!” Squalo complained.

“Why don’t we just land and just kidnap someone to make dinner? We’re right over Russia, and the prince is starting to crave some pirozhki.” Belphegor suggested as he revealed his winning hand, causing everyone to groan.

“Won’t that set us back for at least a day? The Boss won’t be too happy about that.” Levi pointed out as he grumbled about losing this round.

“It’s either that or we stick to the schedule and starve! Whatever that impatient bastard decides, he’d better not bitch about it in the next hour.” The silver-haired Rain Officer said as he turned around to relay the new decision.

In the end, it was finally decided that they land their jet in the airport of the Russian city of Irkutsk to stock up and refuel. Levi took Belphegor’s advice but went overboard by filling up the jet’s built-in kitchen with an insane variety of pirozhki in an attempt to keep Xanxus satisfied. While the man in question wasn’t very impressed, the Russian fried buns did tide them over throughout the journey to Japan.

ʅ(°ヮ°)ʃ

While the Varia were still flying over to Japan, Hadrian was taking a short break in helping Tsuna perfect his control over his HDWM state. Basil had quickly tagged himself in and began sparring with his younger half-brother so the exhausted older teen can catch his breath.

“Amazing. Almost 10 minutes and counting. Will you be teaching him the Zero Point Breakthrough technique afterwards?” The Varia Cloud commented breathlessly as he took a long swig of his water bottle, impressed by the amount of progress the younger Sky is showing.

“In a little while. Right now, I want to see if Tsuna can last over half an hour. Then we’ll switch things around.” Reborn replied as he calmly sipped from his thermos.

“Speaking of training, have you tried adjusting your teaching methods to suit Tsuna-kun?” Hadrian asked.

The Sun Arcobaleno raised an eyebrow at him. “What do you mean by that?”

“No disrespect or anything. I’m not sure if you even noticed, but Mafiosi minds operate on a whole different spectrum compared to civilians. This is just my hypothesis, but the reason why Tsuna-kun is so resistant to the idea of being a future mafia boss is because he grew up with the civilian mindset that the mafia is pure evil. You, on the other hand, have experience tutoring Mafia heirs, but have never worked with civilian children. Can you see the problem with that? Not just that, with you constantly putting him in absurd Mafia-esque situations, he’s completely out of his depth. While I get that you are trying to prepare him by giving him experience and failure to learn from, that’s just going to make him even more resistant because the way you operate is basically cornering him into forcibly accepting his role by breaking him into it, which won’t work when it comes to Tsuna-kun.” The teen explained the best he could.

Reborn hummed thoughtfully. “Let’s say that you have a point… What would your advice be for me?”

“First… Pound every last drop of that civilian nonsense out of him. No mercy.” Hadrian said with a face and a wicked gleam in his eye.

The babyfied hitman chuckled. “I’ve already been doing that. Although I suppose I could increase my tor- I mean mental training exercises. Anything else?”

“Lastly and most importantly, slowly indoctrinate him into acknowledging his inheritance without coming on too strong like you’ve been doing. You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink it. So stop pressuring him by shoving the Decimo seat in his face every third day and let him come to terms over it by himself. Although that might be easier said than done.” The Cloudy-Sky advised.

“It’ll take years though. And with the Varia coming… once Tsuna resolves this issue Nono might want to push his Inheritance Ceremony up.” Reborn pointed out.

“It’s a good thing your student is only 14 then. Still young enough to raise Tsuna-kun the way you want him to be before he takes over but old enough to be able to think for himself so he won’t become a puppet leader for the Vongola.” Hadrian said.

The Sun Arcobaleno smirked at his student proudly. “And with that Seal gone, Tsuna’s learning curve is off the charts. A few days ago, I was fully prepared to beat my lessons into him with what little time we had left. Now I’ve never been as more confident in his ability to defeat Xanxus. No offense.” Reborn added as an afterthought.

Hadrian shrugged as he finished off the last of his water bottle. “None taken. I think the Boss could use a good punch or two to cool down his temper. I’ve already made my peace with my inevitable fate. Thank God he still needs me otherwise I’ll be a roasted Swiss cheese corpse by the end of the week.” Then he stood up and got ready for another round of training. Perhaps it’s time to see what he can do with his Sky Flames while he’s at it.

ʅ(°ヮ°)ʃ

Meanwhile, Nana had persuaded her husband to set aside some time for them to have a private talk that’s been overdue for a long time. Closing the door to their bedroom, the dainty housewife sighed heavily in resignation to what might happen and then turned around to look at the man. “Iemitsu, you and I need to have a serious talk.”

“Hm? What about, my darling wife? If it’s about that homewrecker, then I totally agree. We should kick him out of town while he’s vulnerable and out of his traitorous organization’s reach.” The man beamed at her as though there was absolutely nothing wrong.

“Please don’t start with that. I’m being very serious here. I didn’t ask you to come here just to talk about that.” Nana stared at her husband for a long time. A thousand questions immediately came to mind. Unable to decide where to start, she simply chose to ask the very questions that have been haunting her all the years the man had left her and her son alone.

“Why?” She whispered, her eyes begging and her voice sounding desperate for answers. “Why, Iemitsu? Why lie to me? Why lie to Tsu-kun? Why make him suffer all those years? And why… why did you _abandon us_?”

Iemitsu’s smile then became strained. He began laughing nervously as his mind whirled furiously for the right excuse so he can play it off so his wife doesn’t dig in too deep. “Nana, What…what’s gotten into you? I have never abandoned you or Tsuna. After all, you know I would never. Besides, I don’t see how I have to explain anything to you because everything I’ve done is for the good of the Famiglia. So don’t you worry your pretty little head about it, my love. You wouldn’t understand anyways.”

“I’ll admit… I don’t know a single thing about the world you and Tsu-kun belong to, but I know this much. The day you put the mafia over your son is the day you’ve failed to be his father. Speaking of which… Are you telling me that your own wife and sons aren’t as important as the mafia? …Don’t you dare look at me like that, Iemitsu. I’m also including Basil-kun because he matters too.” The woman brought up.

The man shook his head. “Nana, you don’t get it. Basil isn’t even _our_ son. He’s just a bastard child. He’s not even an heir to an allied Famiglia. And he only has Rain Flames, not Sky. So he’s not important enough to be involved. I could’ve easily dropped him off at the nearest orphanage shortly after he was born, but I didn’t. Because he was already active and needed to be trained. And why not make him the next leader of the CEDEF in the process?” He ended cheerfully as though the explanation makes perfect sense.

“So by that argument, you’re in the right to shun Basil-kun for something he can’t help. What if Tsu-kun was born with a different Flame and Basil-kun was born with the right Flames? Would you disown Tsu-kun as your son then? Also, if you’ve made the time to train Basil-kun as your apprentice, then why didn’t you do the same for Tsu-kun or just hire someone to teach him if you’re too busy for that?” His wife commented bitterly.

“Don’t be ridiculous, Nana. Tsuna is the descendent of the Primo and the future Decimo Vongola. That makes him way more important than the bastard. Plus before Tsuna was a civilian, and he didn’t need to train at all but things are different now.”

“But you’re also Basil’s father. That means he’s also a descendent too. I still don’t see why he’s any different from Tsu-kun. By the way, why aren’t you giving me a straight answer to any of my questions? ” Nana pointed out. She was starting to lose what’s left of her patience for the man.

Her husband pursed his lips in annoyance and completely dismissed his wife’s concerns. “You know what. We’re done with this discussion. Now if you excuse me, I need to leave and-”

_SLAP!_

“Na…Na?” Iemitsu said quietly, putting a hand to his slowly reddening cheek. He watched his distraught wife dissolve into tears with her hand still outstretched from slapping him.

“I love you, Iemitsu. I love you with every fiber of my being so much so that it’s hurting me to know that you’ve betrayed me and trampled on the sanctity of our marriage! And you don’t even have an excuse for it. I don’t care that you are a criminal! I don’t care that you’ve lied to me and Tsu-kun to protect us! I don’t care about any of that because I wanted to believe that deep down abandoning us was more painful than us suffering because of your absence!” Nana sobbed out.

“L-Look, you’ve got everything wrong-” Iemitsu tried and went towards her to make her listen.

But his wife shrugged him off and glared at him with blurry, tear-filled eyes. “NO!! You need to listen to me for once! I am such a horrible mother and a pathetic, naïve woman for hoping for any of that that. And what’s even sadder is that you are looking at me like I’m going crazy when you should be feeling guilty enough to drown in your mistakes. You don’t even care that you’ve hurt me and Tsu-kun too many times! You don’t even care that you’ve also hurt Basil-kun! And just when I decided to help you redeem yourself by giving you a chance to fix our relationship. What do you do?! You don’t even care enough to own up to me and admit your mistakes!”

“B-But…Nana…I-” The man tried to say something. Anything. But any excuses he had died in his throat.

“… I’m sorry, Iemitsu. I’m so, so, so sorry. I just… I think it’s best that…we don’t ever see each other. I still love you, but I don’t deserve you… When this whole ring conflict or whatever it’s called is over… we’ll talk more on where we’ll go from now on. But for now… please stay away from this house.” She whispered.

“…I see… If that’s what you want.” The man said quietly as he left the room with an aura of defeat, leaving his heartbroken wife to cry alone in their empty bedroom.

ʅ(°ヮ°)ʃ

“…So the moment I opened up the refrigerator, guess who came tumbling out.” Tsuna concluded his story to his friends as they all walked around Namimori after a rigorous day of training.

“Whoa, really? How does he EXTREMELY fit inside there?” Ryohei asked in amazement.

The petite brunet shrugged. “I didn’t ask. But you know now that I think about it, ever since my Seal was taken off, I stopped asking ‘How?’ and began asking ‘Why?’ instead.” He added with a small frown.

“…So then why was Hari-san taking a nap in your refrigerator?” Yamamoto said out of curiosity.

“He said that today was too hot to be sleeping under the dinner table.” Tsuna replied to his Rain.

“He doesn’t sleep in his hotel room?” Gokudera questioned.

“Actually, he checked out a long time ago. He only needs a place to put his stuff away and just take naps somewhere where he won’t bother us too much. Apparently from what I can get out of Shamal, he suffers from chronic insomnia because of things that happened to him when he was a kid. But when I tried to ask, Hari-san won’t say a single word about it because it’s a pretty sensitive subject so…” The teenage boy explained as he trailed off awkwardly a little at the end.

Suddenly, Tsuna’s Hyper Intuition flared persistently, and he stopped in his tracks, pulling his friends back by their clothes just in time to see the section of the street in front of them explode in a cloud of debris as if one of Gokudera’s bomb had gone off.

“What the heck was that?!” Yamamoto yelled out in astonishment.

“Juudaime, look! That shot came from up there!” Gokudera said as he pointed at the top of a ledge.

Standing there were several men wearing the Varia uniform. One of them they immediately recognized as Squalo Superbi, but the others were complete strangers. Another was practically a giant behemoth who wore a full-headed mask and armor that made him look more mechanic than human. The next was a flamboyant-looking man who had dyed green bangs and wore a red feather boa with his uniform. Another was a blond teen around their age but with a lopsided crown on his head. Also, standing in a manner that resembled a ferocious guard dog was a man with spiky dark hair and carry a lot of equipment on his back. The next was an infant-sized person who Tsuna’s Intuition seemed to recognize as someone similar to Reborn. Finally, at the front them all was a tall, glowering man who had feathers and a raccoon’s tail attached to his hair. They immediately can tell that he was the leader of the intimidating group.

“Is that… the Varia? They’re not supposed to be here for another few more days!” Tsuna shouted out as everyone prepared themselves for a confrontation.

“Where the fuck is he?! I know he’s somewhere in this goddamn city! I’ll pump that little asshole full of lead by the time I get through with him!” Xanxus growled out furiously.

The young Sky gulped and steeled himself. From the looks of it, the reason why the red-eyed Varia Boss and his Guardians came to Namimori so early in the first place is because he wants to eliminate the competition as soon as possible. Tsuna prayed that what he had learned in the short amount of time is just enough to survive a fight with the Vongola’s elite assassination squad.

“If you’re after the Juudaime then you’re going to have to go through me!” Gokudera shouted at them, quickly lighting a cigarette and took out several bombs.

“Don’t forget me!” Ryohei crowed, already prepared to defend his friends with his fists.

“And me.” Yamamoto added confidently with a hard glint in his eyes as his grip on his Shigure Kintoki tightened.

“So that’s the other Decimo candidate, is it? He’s even scrawnier than how the shark trash described him. I bet he can’t even take one good shot of my Wrath Flames.” The Varia Boss drawled as he glared down at his Namimori opponent with murderous intent.

Suddenly, a pickaxe came flying out of nowhere and imbedded itself between the teenage boys and the Varia entourage. “Hold on now, Xanxus. Let’s not get too hasty there.” A man’s voice sounded from a little ways near them.

“S-SAWADA IEMITSU?!” Everyone shouted out. Right behind the man was Dino, Shamal, Colonello, and Reborn, who all came as a show of support.

“Don’t you worry, Tuna-fishy. Your Papa will take care of this.” The CEDEF Boss winked at his son, thinking that coming to Tsuna’s rescue at the last minute might make him look cooler in his eyes (the boy in question, however, felt only disgust upon seeing his paternal DNA contributor). Then he turned to all of them with a serious expression and opened a Flame Stamped scroll in his hands. “By order of the Ninth Vongola Boss, to resolve the issue of who has the right to become the Decimo Vongola in a battle for the Vongola Rings. Candidates, Sawada Tsunayoshi and Xanxus di Vongola as well as their respective Guardians, will fight each other’s counterpart in a one-on-one-”

Then the dark-haired man interrupted Iemitsu by complaining loudly, “What the fucking hell are you going on about? I’m not talking about the Decimo Vongola seat. I’m talking about _my Cloud_! The Rings can wait until _after_ I finally get my hands around the little bastard’s skinny little neck for disappearing on us 5 days ago.”

“E-Excuse me?” The blond man sputtered comically.

Ryohei blinked in confusion. “Wait, so you guys didn’t EXTREMELY come here for the Vongola Rings?”

“Sorry about all this, all you cuties~. See, we came here to pick up our lost little kitten. So if you don’t mind putting up with us for a little while until we find him~.” Lussuria said to them apologetically.

“A cat… A freaking cat? I trained my ass off for the last several days, and you’re telling me that the enemy I was supposed to defeat just came here to find their _freaking lost pet_?!” The young brunet boy said incredulously as he facepalmed at this new development.

“Calm down, Tsuna. If I’m not mistaken… ‘Kitten,’ is something of a nickname for the Varia agent known as Cat Sìth.” The babyfied hitman explained.

“Um, who is this Cat Sìth person, Reborn? That name kind of sounds familiar.” Dino asked his former tutor.

“That’s the name of the Commander of the Cloud Division. About a month ago, the CEDEF received intel that Xanxus had Harmonized with his Cloud Officer. However, no one knows what he looks like so his profile is a complete mystery.” The Sun Arcobaleno clarified for everyone’s sake.

“But…if they came to Japan to find this Cat person, why would Xanxus’ Cloud Guardian be here in Namimori and not with his Boss? We only know about one member that’s here in town. But Hari-san never mentioned any-” Yamamoto trailed off as it slowly dawned on him who the Varia Cloud really is. “Ooooh…”

Everyone not in the Varia face-faulted and not surprisingly, a certain CEDEF Boss was quick to disappear shortly after that proclamation.

Gokudera’s jaw dropped wide open, causing the cigarette in his mouth to fall out. “…No. Fucking. Way.”

“H-HIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEE!!!!!” Tsuna screeched, practically hyperventilating over the implications as Dino fainted.

“ **Baka-mitsu… When I find you…and when I kill you…I’m going to record your screaming so I can fall to sleep to it every night.** ” Reborn grumbled to himself darkly. He was getting pretty sick and tired of the CEDEF Boss’ incompetence. The babyfied hitman made a mental note to take this up to Lal so she can also join in on the fun. “What’s the hell is next?! Empress happens to be Xanxus’ wife whom he kept hidden under a rock?!” The home tutor ranted.

“Uh…Actually she’s an owl… Cat Sìth’s pet snowy owl… Empress is a nickname the Cloud Division gave to her after she single-handedly turned them all into her human slaves.” Levi provided, causing the Sun Arcobaleno to want to hit his head on something out of frustration.

“So…Falco is trying to court the Varia’s feathery harpy queen? What a masochist, kora.” Colonello commented with a shake of his head.

Mammon sighed. “Hello, Mr. Kettle? Mr. Pot called. He said you’re black. And isn’t Lal a tsundere?”

“Eh? What does my lovely Lal have anything to do with Hedwig, kora?” The Rain Arcobaleno asked, genuinely confused.

“…Nevermind.” The tiny Varia Mist replied.

“Wait, Hadrian is a Sky too, right? Is it possible for two Skies to Harmonize with each other?” Ryohei asked, completely confused.

“If there’s a vacancy and willing participants, a Sky can reach out towards another Sky’s secondary Flames and Harmonize with them. However, while those instances are pretty rare, it’s not that unheard of. Xanxus has secondary Storm Flames but has Guardians while Hadrian’s secondary is Cloud yet the kid still hasn’t attracted a single Guardian. I’m just wondering if they’ve Bonded on both ends or it’s just one sided on maybe Hadrian’s part?” Shamal explained.

“WOULD ALL OF YOU BASTARDS JUST SHUT THE FUCK UP ALREADY?!!! Now tell me where the fucking hell is the damn kitten? I’ve got a bone to pick with him for going AWOL like that!!” The Varia Boss roared at the Namimori group as his scars lengthened to match his increasing rage. Xanxus was not only dealing with a migraine thanks to the chaos that Hadrian had left behind when his Cloud went to Japan, but he’s going through what Lussuria playfully dubbed as “Hari-chan withdrawals.”

Everyone sweatdropped at the man’s demand. Hadrian is going to have one hell of a time surviving that man’s wrath when he finds him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter is the start of the Ring Battles. I’m going to go for the semi-canon route so expect things that will be the same and things that may go a bit differently. (ര̀ᴗര́)و
> 
> Himedere!Hedwig: Yes. Yes, I did. Hedwig is officially a himedere! Sadly, I know some of you were hoping for FalcoxHedwig to be the same as 5666 (ColonelloxLal, ColoLal, LalNello, etc.). Sadly, for this fic, I feel that Tsundere!Hedwig might be a bit too OOC. But considering I made Falco just as masochistic as his master for their respective lady-loves, hopefully you don’t mind this take on their relationship. 
> 
> Reborn’s reaction to Cat Sìth: A quote from Hellsing Ultimate Abridged Episode 4. Yet another gem from TeamFourStar. Bless them and their series.


	13. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Don’t you worry, Tuna-fishy! She’s allowed to bring in anything to the fight, so I’m going to give her some Dying Will Pills. She’ll wipe the floor with that guy without any problems.” Iemitsu winked at his son, like it would solve all their problems.
> 
> However, that didn’t reassure Tsuna in the slightest. “If she dies, I’ll hold you responsible for her death and kill you myself!” He snarled at the man, the air around them was filled with his intent to murder him if anything goes wrong.
> 
> “You’ll kill your own father?” The CEDEF said with a disappointed tone like it would mean anything to the boy.
> 
> “You’ve already been dead to me since I was 5.” Tsuna replied back lowly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “I won’t be impressed with technology until I can download food.” (9/22/17)

The next morning, Xanxus burst into the Sawada resident in all his foul-tempered glory with his mind completely focused on kicking the ever-loving shit out of his Cloud Guardian, he immediately stopped in his tracks the moment he saw Hadrian blissfully asleep on the floor of the family’s living room.

“Oh, you must be Hari-kun’s friends. If you wait, I’ll have tea and snacks ready in just a moment.” Nana chirped as she carefully tucked a blanket around the teen so he won’t catch a cold.

“Boss, should we just have Mammon levitate Cat Sìth out of here and just leave?” Levi suggested with a cautious whisper as Hadrian hugged the pillow he was snuggling up to and curled up into a comfortable ball. They half-expected him to start purring at any second.

“Voi. Are you out of your mind? You want to risk waking up the ‘Sleeping Dragon’ of the Varia?” Squalo whisper-shouted so he didn’t accidently wake up their little Cloud.

“Ushishishi. How about we just get the Sawada idiot here and do it for us? Even if he gets killed like that one poor bastard, I’m pretty sure his son will be very happy to be fatherless.” Belphegor suggested with a mischievous grin.

Before anyone can answer, Nana interrupted with a decorative tea tray. “Your tea is ready~! I hope you don’t mind black tea. Personally, I think it goes well with my homemade cheesecake.”

As Xanxus watched the dainty housewife pass out the tea and slices of cake, inspiration suddenly struck him. Plan A was already a bust, Plan B is a big if at best, and Plan C could still be salvageable so long as they can improvise… Hello, Plan D. “Woman. Are you aware?” He demanded.

Nana paused and blinked at him owlishly at him. “If you mean about the mafia and my Tsu-kun learning how to become the next Boss, then yes. Is there something wrong?”

“We’re kidnapping you along with a few others to light a fire under the shitty brats’ asses.” The man replied gruffly.

For a while the woman stared at the Varia Boss in muted silence at the man’s sudden…*ahem* request… However, deep within the darkest recesses of the housewife’s mind, a sliver of sadistic pleasure rang throughout her being at the thought of Iemitsu suffering over the thought of his so-called beloved wife being in the hands of his supposed enemies.

With her mind already made up, she put down a plate of cheesecake in front of him and gave Xanxus an unperturbed smile. “Ara ara. Why don’t you just relax and enjoy your tea while I go pick up the kids before we all go? Oh, and if you’re going to mess up the house to make the abduction look authentic, will you please leave my cabinet alone? That’s where I store some of my expensive teacups and dishes.” And with that she danced her way towards the house phone to call Bianchi about this new predicament.

An hour later, The Varia went back to their hotel with not only their reclaimed Cloud Officer but also Sawada Nana, Lambo Bovino, Fuuta de la Stella, I-pin, Sasagawa Kyoko, and Poison Scorpion Bianchi in tow.

The quiet, peaceful morning of Namimori was interrupted by a loud roar of rage coming from a man, and then the entire town was saturated in the furious Flames of selected individuals after a certain snowy owl delivered an ultimatum to them.

Tsuna coolly ignored his sperm donor’s insistent demands on exactly how he should take Xanxus contesting his right to become the Decimo and walked right up to his home tutor. “Teach me how to make it so that this never happens again,” he demanded lowly.

Reborn smirked in satisfaction at seeing the barely unrestrained Flames eagerly dancing behind his student’s amber-brown eyes. Now what kind of home tutor is he to deny his student when he had asked so nicely?

ʅ(°ヮ°)ʃ

According to what Iemitsu’s contacts had told him, the Varia had rented out an entire hotel and then took the time to modify it with traps so that their challenge can take place. The rules they’ve set up goes like this. Each of the Namimori Ring-Half Bearers will fight against their counterparts as they make their way up to the penthouse where the “hostages” were. The winner of the battle takes the Vongola Ring and whoever wins the majority of the battles will become the Decimo. Regardless of who wins, Xanxus gave his word that he would let Nana and the others go free without so much as a papercut on them once the Conflict was over and leave Namimori immediately.

Iemitsu snorted at this and thought to himself, “ _Leave it to that spoiled rotten brat to want to fight in a high-end hotel. What a load of bullshit._ ” The CEDEF Boss never trusted the little slum alley bastard ever since he met him. To this day, he still thought that Nono should’ve shot the little brat point blank in the head the moment his delusional whore of a mother came up to him and presented her son to the Vongola Don.

Even if it did turn out that Xanxus had Vongola blood running through his veins, bastards had no place in the Famiglia. In fact, the brat should’ve been honored like Basil had before his treachery that they even had a use for him. He should’ve counted himself lucky that the Vongola still needed him as the Varia Boss otherwise he would’ve been thrown away like a discarded pawn piece. If Iemitsu had it his way, that would’ve happened a long time ago. But now things have changed, and it’s all up to him to fix the Nono’s mistake before Xanxus’ presence poisons his Famiglia and family any further.

Carefully sneaking himself down into the hotel basement, he made his way towards where the Varia stored their Cloud’s substitute fighter.

Gola Mosca is a robotic suit that ran on Dying Will Flames. Originally, a person would be strapped inside the suit to act as a living battery for the thing to work. However, once the Varia got their hands on it, its inner chamber, where the person was meant to be, was heavily modified so that the suit accepts canisters of stored Flames as its fuel. This would allow their Cloud to control the suit via the remote control installed in his laptop. While it was ingenious, it still didn’t hide that all the clues pointed towards the oh-so-mighty Cat Sìth being a cowardly and weak little rat. Shame Tsuna’s Cloud Guardian couldn’t put the little homewrecker in his rightful place on the ground and expose the manipulative traitor for what he really is.

(The actual reason was that Hadrian’s fellow Officers were a bit overprotective over their little chef to an extent. Needless to say, the entire Varia was completely on board with the plan as they all teased Hadrian for pouting over their decision.)

Ripping open its chest plate, Iemitsu then began to take out the numerous canisters. He scowled when he recognized the familiar feel of Hadrian’s Cloud Flames stored within the containers. Once Gola Mosca was emptied of its new fuel source, the CEDEF Boss opened up the cello case to take out the suit’s new battery to replace it.

“If only that bastard never came to Namimori. My little Tuna-fishy and beloved Nana were already fine the way they were before he came and ruined everything.” The man mumbled to himself as he did this.

And with his task done, he gathered up all of the canisters and then snuck out of the hotel without anyone noticing.

ʅ(°ヮ°)ʃ

“…so basically, dearie, you just pour in your Flames here just like this- oh, not too much, sweetie- and don’t forget to be more assertive. Bones aren’t exactly soft tissue, you know.” Lussuria instructed his new student.

“Um… Like this?” Kyoko said as she copied the Sun Officer’s actions, slightly flinching at the sickening sounds of Hadrian’s bones cracking as they realigned themselves in response to her Flames. She could still hear the Cloud’s pained groans as he buried his face deeper into the pillow the teen was using to stifle his screams.

Several hours ago, Xanxus barged into Lussuria’s room carrying the limp, mangled form of his Cloud Officer under one arm. Apparently, he caught wind that Hadrian had been training with his Sky Flames during his time in Namimori and decided that he would be his Cloud’s newest teacher. Since then, the entire hotel was filled with the teen’s constant screams of terror and pain. Xanxus even took his Cloud’s punishment a bit further by ordering that after every session Hadrian was to be used like a guinea pig in the Sun’s attempts to teach Kyoko how to heal with her half-awakened Flames.

They found out through the information their Cloud Guardian had gathered on the Namimori gang that Kyoko had partially-awakened Sun Flames, meaning she had been hit by a Dying Will Bullet in the past. Normally, she would’ve been left alone and her Flames would eventually go back to being Latent within a few more years. However, given that her brother is Tsuna’s Sun Guardian, it would’ve been better for her to know a thing or two so that she wouldn’t become a tempting target to be used against Ryohei.

It took a while for her to come around, but a long overdue talk with Nana, Bianchi, and Hadrian helped opened up her eyes. Being a pacifist, however, she refused to fight, but she was more than willing to take up the complicated art of Flame healing so she could better support her brother and his friends. She may not like what Ryohei’s position will eventually require him to do, but she can at least put up with it since he’ll be fighting to protect his friends and not for himself.

Once his body was finally healed up after his final training session à la Xanxus, Hadrian made his way down into the hotel kitchen to rewind via cooking and found Nana and Bianchi already there.

As they converse while making dinner the dainty housewife brought up a subject that plagued her curiosity for a while. “Hari-kun, I was just wondering about something. Why do you follow Xanxus even though he treats you that way? You don’t seem like the type of person who’d lie down and let anyone do that to you.”

Hadrian paused in peeling the fruits and vegetables. The woman’s question caught him off-guard. For several minutes, he let his thoughts stew over the subject. Xanxus is anything but a gentle and caring leader. If anything, his is rightfully called the incarnation of the sin of Wrath for a reason. But he’s a possessive and temperamental man who would burn you alive in a fit of rage yet couldn’t stand the thought of anyone other than him doing the same.

“Xanxus is my Boss and Sky because I had the freedom to _choose_ him to be.” Hadrian began thoughtfully. “You see, before I became the person known as ‘Hadrian Temperanza’, I was always forced to become something I’m not. An unwanted _freak_ leeching off the hard work of my caretakers. A glorified _savior_ in shining armor. An attention-seeking brat with a mental case.” He spat out the words bitterly.

The teen ended up slammed down the chopping knife so hard it broke the counter as memories of his argument with Ron came back to him. “Back then I was more of a symbol or a possession and barely a “person”. People thought they knew everything about me so they had the right to decide who I should or shouldn’t be. I had enough and then just left one day. I didn’t give a damn about what I had thrown away because for the first time in my life… I was free.”

After taking several deep breaths to calm himself down, the petite Cloud then started chuckling as he continued on to the better parts of his story. Nana and Bianchi laughed alongside him as he described how Xanxus had tricked him into becoming his chef. Looking back, it was pretty stupid of him to challenge the Varia that way, but he really had it coming for letting his pride take the wheel that time. “However, everything changed when he casually threw the position of Cloud Officer in my face and said, ‘Take it or leave it. Either way, you’re still not getting out of cooking for us no matter what.’”

“And you ended up agreeing anyways.” Nana confirmed.

The corners of Hadrian’s lips lifted into a small smile. “He had already made up his mind that he wanted me. It didn’t matter who I used to be or who I am now. Just that I was Quality enough to be his Cloud, no more no less. That was all he cared about. And at some point, we just clicked. I never knew what was so great about Harmonization until I actually had a taste of it for the first time. Back then, I used to question why I am becoming so loyal to that man when I barely even know him. But the answer to that became pretty clear when he straight up told me what he thought about me and my past. It may not seem like much to him or anyone else, but to me… that was the moment when I truly had something I can finally call mine.”

“Such love and devotion for your Sky. Truly your bond is something to be envied.” The Poison Scorpion cooed after Hadrian finished his story.

“Really, Bianchi? You’re starting that again.” The Cloudy-Sky teen deadpanned as he absentmindedly stirred the miso soup.

“What’s wrong with love?” She replied innocently.

Nana giggled as she continued observing the continued interactions between the two teenagers. She wondered if Hadrian had noticed that he didn’t deny Bianchi’s earlier comment.

ʅ(°ヮ°)ʃ

Mandarin Oriental is a luxury hotel that only the filthy rich can afford. The hotel boasts nearly two hundred guestrooms and suites, and it has ten restaurants and bars spread throughout the many floors of the building. At a mind-boggling price of over fifty-five thousand yen a night, it’s obvious that the Varia is deliberately doing this as a symbol for how large the gap between them is.

“Hahaha… at least we’re not fighting at the school. Am I right, Hibari-san?” Yamamoto commented with a carefree tone in an attempt to lighten up his comrades as the group entered the empty lobby.

“Hn.” The prefect replied.

Tsuna had a feeling that there was more to the location of the Ring Battles Arc than they’ve originally thought. Had they fought things out in Namimori Middle School, then Hibari would’ve wanted to fight the Varia solely for the reason that they were invading his territory. This way, Tsuna’s trust in Hibari is tested on whether or not he’ll come to his Sky’s aid. Having a loyal Cloud Guardian by your side is a testament to a Sky’s leadership. Most people wouldn’t even consider a Boss a charismatic individual unless they’ve proven that they can rein in a Cloud.

Then, a large monitor came into view and turned on, revealing the face of Hadrian with a headset. “Great! You all made it. So now are you kids ready to-”

“Tuna-fishy~! Never fear, your Papa came through and brought help!” Iemitsu interrupted as he burst into the room. Following behind him were several people who didn’t look familiar to any of them.

“Goddammit! What are you up to now, Sawada?!” The Varia Cloud groaned with an irritated scowl directed at the man.

“Help? What are you saying-? …Oh, no…” The brunet boy trailed off as his eyes slowly widened with horror at what the man had done.

“I think we should get back, kora.” Colonello suggested from his place on Ryohei’s shoulder. This could only end badly. For Iemitsu, he means.

“B-Boss?” Chrome asked, shivering at Tsuna’s sudden change in demeanor upon seeing who Iemitsu had brought with him.

“Hahi! Haru is here to rescue Mama-san and the kids~! We’ll teach those bad guys a lesson! Right, Tsuna-san~!” Haru chirped as she stepped out into view from behind the CEDEF Boss. When Iemitsu had came up to her and asked that she help his son out in an important battle, she thought that this was her chance to surprise Tsuna. Like a Joan of Arc in shining armor coming to her price’s rescue, her crush will be so impressed with Haru that he’ll want to marry her on the spot.

However, Tsuna was anything but surprised or even love-strucked. If anything, he was apoplectic. Not at Haru but with his sperm-donor. “WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING?! LAMBO WAS ONE THING BUT HARU?!!!” He yelled at the man furiously.

“Well, you can’t expect to fight the Varia without a Lightning Guardian. At least Haru-chan isn’t 5 years old, so you can relax.” Iemitsu waved off his son’s anger and just replied back with a carefree tone.

“NO, I WON’T AND CAN’T RELAX!! AT LEAST WITH LAMBO HE WAS SOMEWHAT TRAINED TO FIGHT!! HARU, ON THE OTHER HAND, IS A CIVILIAN!! SHE’S GOING TO GET HERSELF KILLED!! I’M NOT RISKING HER LIFE FOR A LOUSY PIECE OF METAL!!”

“But what was I supposed to do, Tsuna? Just sit around and let you give up? A man should take action and fight with all he’s got!”

“But it takes a _real man_ to know when to cut his losses and look for another, far _better_ , solution! Haru shouldn’t even be here! For her sake, we’re forfeiting the Lightning Battle before anything happens! I don’t care what you say! I’m not letting Haru fight anyone!”

“Motion rejected. Both sides must have a full set of Guardians or Elemental Representatives. Regardless of your feelings over the matter, Miura Haru will fight in the Battle for the Vongola Lightning Ring unless you have provided a suitable substitute for her.” One of the Cervello women jumped in.

“Don’t you worry, Tuna-fishy! She’s allowed to bring in anything to the fight, so I’m going to give her some Dying Will Pills. She’ll wipe the floor with that guy without any problems.” Iemitsu winked at his son, like it would solve all their problems.

However, that didn’t reassure Tsuna in the slightest. “If she dies, I’ll hold you responsible for her death and kill you myself!” He snarled at the man, the air around them was filled with his intent to murder him if anything goes wrong.

“You’ll kill your own father?” The CEDEF said with a disappointed tone like it would mean anything to the boy.

“You’ve already been dead to me since I was 5.” Tsuna replied back lowly.

ʅ(°ヮ°)ʃ

Cat Sìth narrowed his eyes in suspicious at the monitor. The figures behind the CEDEF Boss were a group of women. While they all look different because of their clothes and hairstyles, but all of them sported the same pink hair, the same tan skin, and the same black mask over their eyes.

“Um…Tsuna-kun, I hate to interrupt your disownment of Sawada, but… Can someone explain to me who are the wannabe clones behind Sawada?” The Cloud Officer asked, bringing their attention back to him.

“We are the Cervello. We were summoned here by order of the Nono Vongola to prepare the battlegrounds and oversee the Vongola Ring Battles.” One of the women said as the other beside her held up the very paper that contained their orders.

Using his laptop, Cat Sìth used the camera to zoom in on the paper and then turned to his fellow Officers. “So what do you guys think of this?”

“The Flame Stamp looks legit, but it could be another trap from the CEDEF scum.” Squalo grumbled.

“Either way, we have no choice but to comply in case the order isn’t a farce.” Mammon pointed out.

Belphegor sneered at the monitor. “Ushishishi. You peasants said that you are also going to prepare the battlegrounds. The price wants to know exactly how you will be doing that.”

“That is classified. But rest assured, the preparations will be taken care of by tomorrow evening. From there, the Battle for Sun Ring will commence in the gymnasium on the 8th floor. Then we will conduct the Lightning Ring Battle on the next day, the Storm Battle the day after, and so on.” The same Cervello woman replied in a matter-of-fact tone.

“Each location of the Ring Battles will vary. We will inform both sides after the conclusion of the previous battle. The rules established are the same. A one-on-one fight for the possession of the completed Vongola Ring. Outside interference means automatic forfeit. Are these conditions satisfactory?” Her partner added.

“Whatever.” Xanxus said. Like he cared what any of them do so long as he and the baby trash can duke it out.

Tsuna looked to his friends, and they all nodded back at him. Turning back to the Cervello, he replied, “No complaints here.”

“Then the Vongola Ring Battles will officially begin tomorrow at 20:00 (8:00pm). Please be punctual lest you forfeit the battle.” One of the judges announced as the women left to work their magic.

Hadrian decided that now would be a good time to explain thing to the Namimori group. “Okay, now to make things easier for everyone, you guys can stay in any room on the 5th floor so I hope you’ve brought your luggage with you-”

“WHAT?!!”

“-Most of the restaurants are close due to obvious reasons,” the Cloudy-Sky teen continued as though he wasn’t interrupted, “but the one on the 10th is fully functional and buffet style. Also the spa on the 3rd is open for all your bathroom needs. Also don’t expect any room service or anyone to clean up your messes because we kicked out all of the people who worked here when we rented this place out. Enjoy your stay at the Varia Style Mandarin Oriental~! Oh, I almost forgot. Look out for the traps! See you later~!”

“…”

“…Good thing we have a whole day to kill.”

ʅ(°ヮ°)ʃ

And so the Ring Battles commenced as planned.

The Namimori teens won the Sun Battle. Turns out, “kidnapping” the boy’s sister was just the trigger he needed to bring out his more ruthless side. Ryohei was more than happy to vent out his anger and frustration on the flamboyant member of the Varia and went as far as completely shatter his knee with a single punch. Being a sore loser, Lussuria kept insisting that he can still fight forcing Xanxus to order Gola Mosca to unload a few rounds of tranquilizers into his Sun just to have an excuse to get him out of the gymnasium to be properly treated. After all, the Varia Boss no use for a crippled Sun Guardian. Better for Lussuria to be an invalid for the rest of the Ring Battles than the rest of his life.

The next day, the Varia, of course, won the rooftop Lightning Battle, but what happened beforehand was a large turning point for all of them. It started with Tsuna trying to forfeit the match on behalf of Haru, but the Cervello women and Iemitsu was having none of it, explaining that it was her decision to fight and not even Tsuna had the power to stop the Battle from happening. So when the CEDEF Boss all but pushed the female Lightning representative onto the battlefield, the teen practically snapped and tried to attack his sperm donor in a protective Sky Rage. His friends had to literally _sit on him_ in order to prevent Tsuna from committing patricide on the spot.

The resulting fight was horrifying for the Namimori side. Haru had tried. She desperately tried. But in the end, her best efforts just didn’t measure up to an elite assassin. Levi was nothing short of efficient. The moment her Dying Will Mode wore off, he dislocated her left arm and shattered both her tibias in order to make it so that she couldn’t take new pills and attack him again. The girl was still screaming her lungs out in pain and fear as the stalked towards her menacingly and made for the killing blow.

However, at the last minute, Tsuna in his HDWM saved her by running in and quickly snatched Haru away in a bridal hold just as Levi’s fist was about to smash her skull to pieces, only to miss and destroyed the ground where she once was. The girl immediately latched onto him and began sobbing hysterically in relief, completely terrified at how close she came to her death.

“Tsuna, what the hell are you doing?!” Iemitsu growled out.

“Saving my friend! I’ve had it up to here with this bullshit!” The boy spat out to the man furiously.

“Sawada Tsunayoshi has interfered with the Lightning Ring Battle. As a consequence, you forfeit not only the Lightning Ring, but also the Sky Ring Battle.” The Cervello judge’s monotone announcement rang throughout the rooftop.

“Fine by me!” The brunet teen said as he took out his half of the Sky Ring and tossed it at Xanxus. “Just take the stupid piece thing and go! I don’t even want to be Decimo if this is what will happen to my friends the moment we step into the Mafia World!” He said, his hold on Haru tightened as she held onto him with her undamaged arm and buried her face into his shirt.

However, the Varia Boss tossed the half-ring back at Tsuna. “Screw that, baby trash. The Ring Battles will continue! I’ll only accept the win only if we’ve won far and square, and not on a _technicality_. You don’t want to see your friends get hurt again? Then fight me! Prove to not only us but all of Cosa Nostra that you’re not one to be messed with so you’ll never see it happen again!” The dark-haired man declared with a barely noticeable measure of respect aimed towards his counterpart.

A good Mafia Boss cares about the well-being of his Famiglia, but a _great_ one cares about the well-being of his _family_. That was all they needed to see that Tsuna truly does have what it takes to become the Decimo Vongola.

The next evening, everyone witnessed the Storm Ring Battle whose location spanned the entire fifth floor suites. Gokudera barely managed win the fight by the skin of his teeth, but he lost the battle. However, he had not only proved his loyalty to his Sky and showed that he’s Quality enough to be a match for the Varia’s genius assassin, but he also learned to value himself more for Tsuna’s sake and not needlessly throw his life away. Once the Varia brought Belphegor back to their side to get medical treatment, the blond Storm was viciously spitting acid in his native language over his loss. The fact that his counterpart forced the young prince to resort to dirty tricks in a desperate attempt to achieve a win made the blond teen seethe with rage. The fight only served as a motivation for him to become stronger. Seeing Tsuna order Gokudera to prioritize his life over some gaudy piece of jewelry elevated the respect the Varia had for the boy even further.

The Rain Ring Battle took place in the second floor hotel pool room that’s been flooded to almost knee deep and filled with man-eating sharks, whom were quickly turned into sashimi by the combined efforts of both Rains. (In their defense, they didn’t want anything to interrupt their battle.) The resulting fight ended in a tie, but the win went to the Namimori teens because Yamamoto was the last one standing after wards. At first, it seemed like Squalo had the upper hand having faced up against the Shigure Soen Ryu before. That is until Yamamoto revealed his trump card. A whole different eighth form and a ninth form! Forced to fight his counterpart more seriously, Squalo gave one last attack that took the teen down with him, but he was the first to pass out. As a result, the Cervello decreed Tsuna’s Rain Guardian as the victor of the two after they were fished from the water.

The Mist Battle in the fourth floor spa rooms was nothing short of extraordinary. After all, it’s not every day you meet a Mist Flame User whose illusions are strong enough to overpower the Mist Arcobaleno themselves. Belphegor would later find Mammon sulking on the prince’s hotel bed over their loss. Hadrian made a mental note to cheer up their little Mist later with a meal consisting of all their favorites: mapo doufu, a large bottle of chilled strawberry milk, and five-yen chocolate for dessert.

Finally, it was time for the Cloud Ring Battle in the vast kitchen on the fifteenth floor. Hadrian couldn’t help but wonder how that will go.

ʅ(°ヮ°)ʃ

Even though Cat Sìth was Xanxus’ true Cloud Guardian, the teen wasn’t allowed to participate in the Ring Battles. Don’t get them wrong. The petite Varia Officer is pretty strong on his own, but in order for Xanxus’ plan to work, their little kitten had to stay back and appoint Gola Mosca as his “substitute,” using the reason that Cat Sìth doesn’t have any combat training as an excuse for this move (which was half a lie because Hadrian is most self-taught and can already utilize his Cloud Flames in frighteningly creative ways during battle despite never being formally taught how to fight with his Flames properly before).

The Cervello women allowed it so long as both the Varia Cloud Guardian and his “substitute” are both on the battlefield at the same time with the true Cloud Guardian holding his half of the Ring. However, the catch is that Cat Sìth himself cannot participate in the fight for the ring lest he be automatically disqualified. This makes it more difficult on the Varia side because Hibari could easily attack Cat Sìth all he wants while Gola Mosca is busy trying to take down the dark-haired boy and the Varia Cloud is not even allowed to lift a finger to fight back or even defend himself.

Cat Sìth was anything but happy with the decision… until the petite Varia Officer saw his Namimori counterpart tear apart Gola Mosca in mere seconds all with a cocky smirk on the boy’s face. Suddenly he was thankful that Xanxus managed to talk him into standing down. The green-eyed teen sweatdropped as he examined the damage done to the giant robot, ignoring the continuously blinking error screen on his laptop that appeared after the robot’s defeat. Cat Sìth had to admit that Tsuna had one scary Cloud Guardian by his side.

Maybe it’s about time for him to pick out a weapon he can use. Would an oversized kitchen knife work?

“Hibari has won the Cloud Ring Battle. Please vacate the battlegrounds.” The Cervello judge announced as the Varia Cloud handed his half of the Vongola Cloud Ring over to his counterpart.

Cat Sìth was just about to set down his laptop on a counter when all of a sudden, it blared out a warning just as Gola Mosca immediately sprang back to life. Both Clouds jumped away from the machine as it began acting erratically. The suit proceeded to try and empty out its weapons arsenal onto Hibari and his counterpart forcing them to dodge and take shelter from behind one of the kitchen counters.

“Herbivore, shut that thing off!” Hibari barked over the sound of a missile exploding near them.

The Varia Cloud struggled to send Gola Mosca the deactivation code that would completely shut down the robot, but the commands weren’t responding. Swearing in French, he opened up the status menu and immediately saw the problem. “Damn it all! I can’t! It’s on autopilot, and the wireless connection is broken! We have to manually shut it down!”

“How?”

“There’s a button on its back that’ll deactivate it! But with the suit going out-of-control like this, we need to take it down first!”

“Hn. Where are the rest of the herbivores anyways? The small animal should’ve been on his way here the moment that thing went berserk.”

“Y-You two, sorry about this!” Haru’s voice sounded over the speakers. “Um…Tsuna-san’s dad put your floor on lockdown. So none of us up here can help you even if we want to. The room is covered in Flame-proof steel, and it’ll take hours before help arrives. So do you think you guys can at least hold on until we get to you?”

“Forget it. We’ll handle it ourselves.” Cat Sìth replied, closing his laptop and then set it aside.

“Herbivore. Don’t hold back this time. I want to see you fight.” Hibari shot back as he bonked his counterpart’s head with one of his tonfas.

“Hahi! Are you two sure about this?” Haru shrieked.

“Haru-san. You and your friends are going to find out that I didn’t become the Commander of the Varia Cloud Division just because of my cooking.” Cat Sìth drawled. Completely unafraid, he calmly tightened his gloves on his hands and slowly got up from behind the counter dramatically.

But the moment was interrupted when Levi butting in and pointing out, “Ah, well, to be honest, it did play a large factor in your entry. Once everyone had a bite of your cooking, the decision was pretty much unanimous.” This made Cat Sìth pout with annoyance and Hibari smirk with amusement.

“Ushishishi. You just ruined the kitten’s cool moment. That’s impolite, you know.” Belphegor said, unable to resist the opportunity to mess with his fellow Officer.

“S-Shut up! I-I’m just stating the facts!” The Varia Lightning defended himself.

Ignoring the banter between the two Varia Officers, the two Clouds sprang from their hiding place in different directions. Gola Mosca can only focus on one living target at a time. With the two using a dividing and conquering strategy, it’ll confuse the robotic suit creating an opening for the other while one of them kept its focus solely on them.

Typical of his nature, Hibari charged at the robotic suit head-on and struck the machine a few times while Cat Sìth used his speed and reflexes to avoid the missiles being fired from Gola Mosca at random. With the out-of-control robot’s attention completely focused on his counterpart, the petite Cloud grabbed its remaining unmaimed arm and judo-threw it across the room with a feral cry, effectively ripping the arm from Gola Mosca’s socket as the momentum tossed the one-ton hulk of machinery all the way to the other end of the vast room.

“H-Holy crap! Who knew that scrawny little girly-boy could be so strong? Clouds are really scary creatures.” Shamal commented nervously, causing everyone save the Varia to nod in agreement.

This made the suit automatically hone in on Cat Sìth as it got up to try and attack him with a particle beam charging on its belly. But before it had the chance to fire, Hibari had taken the opportunity to charge in again and smash its abdomen, ripping open a sizable hole in its inner chamber. The damage Gola Mosca sustained from the two confused its sensors and the robot’s head served back and forth trying to focus on a target. Taking advantage of the opportunity presented, the Varia Cloud used the distraction to jump on its back. Seeing the deactivation button, Cat Sìth lifted his foot as high as he could and smashed it down onto the button with all his Flame-enhanced strength before backflipping away from the collapsing machine.

Gola Mosca fell down backwards and all of its functions died down once it hit the ground. Once it was as still as a statue, Hibari turned to the camera nearest him and growled out, “We’re finally done here. Now hurry up and get us out of here!”

“Muu. Just be patient for a little while longer. We’re still working on getting into the room. The earliest we can get to the two of you is about 15 minutes.” Mammon’s voice sounded over the speakers.

“Tch.” The Namimori prefect scoffed and decided to just lie down and nap while he waits.

To stave off boredom, Cat Sìth decided to approach the robotic suit and examine the remains just to see the extent of the damage he and his counterpart had done to the machine. Spotting something unusual in the hole that Hibari had made, he took a closer look. It didn’t look like a piece of one of the portable Flame canisters that fueled Gola Mosca so the green-eyed teen decided to pry open the inner chamber further to see it clearly, only to stop dead once he realized what it was that he was seeing.

“Wha-… What the hell?” Cat Sìth gasped out in horror as he hurriedly tore the chest plate apart in order to get what was inside out.

“Oi! Kyoya! Hadrian! What’s going up on your end?” Dino said after stealing the microphone.

The Namimori Cloud jolted up from his spot on the ground and quickly made his way towards Cat Sìth’s side. “The Herbivore found an old man in the robot. Bad news, judging from the look on his face.” Hibari replied back.

“An old man?!” Tsuna parroted in shock. His Hyper Intuition is screaming at him. Something is wrong. _Very wrong_.

Cat Sìth’s features were grim as he carefully pulled out the familiar unconscious man from the wreckage. “…It’s not just any old man. It’s the Nono.”

This shocked everyone to their core. “WHAT?!”

Standing behind all of them, Iemitsu chuckle darkly and turned to the Cervello women. “You girls heard and saw all of that, right?

Growling at the man, Xanxus’ scars appeared as he snarled out, “Sawada, what did you do?!”

The CEDEF Boss merely held up his hands in a totally relaxed manner. “What are you talking about? I haven’t done anything since I’ve set foot in the hotel. You and your little entourage, on the other hand, have a lot to explain. The Cloud Guardian Varia used a robot to fight in the Ring Battles. However, the robot ran on Dying Will Flames as its fuel. And when they opened up it up, the Nono came tumbling out. They were using the Nono as their living battery! The Varia is trying to start another coup d’état!” The man accused.

“Why, you sick son of a bitch! Why?! Tell me right now, you cock-sucking, motherfucking shitass! Before I take your piss-for-brains head and shove it up your loose arsehole.” Cat Sìth hollered back angrily as he placed Nono on the ground.

Iemitsu merely shrugged like the situation he’s in was no big deal. “…I just don’t want any of you to poison my precious Nana and Tuna-fishy with your influence,” he said casually without any remorse.

Then all hell broke loose.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What the hell… DID I JUST WRITE?!! ゞ◎Д◎ヾ
> 
> Mandarin Oriental: I don’t know exactly where the Varia was staying during the whole Ring Battles Arc in the canon, so I took creative liberty and have them rent out an entire luxury hotel for their battles. (Because Xanxus only wants the best of the best and has the money to afford it all.) I took inspiration from the real-life Mandarin Oriental luxury hotel chain. The one they have in Tokyo is located in the Nihonbashi Mitsui Tower and spans the 30th and 36th floors.
> 
> Levi vs. Haru: I apologize to all of the Haru-fans for what I did to her. I needed a plot device for the girls to develop into actual Mafia ladies. Personally, I’ve always felt that they could’ve done more in the canon than just stay home, cook, and take care of the kids while the guys go off and fight. However, I’m not saying that they should spontaneously take out a weapon and pound the next enemy into submission. As much as I think that BAMF!Kyoko will be hilarious, that’s too unrealistic. From what I can tell based on the manga, the girls do have the potential to use Flames. Sure, they’re Latent, but I want to establish their potential to be better supporters for the Namimori gang.


	14. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Ring Battles Arc finally comes to a close~ Battles are won, bonds are lost, stuff is revealed, and Hadrian needs a medic again... ੭•̀ω•́)੭ﾟ.*･｡ﾟ

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “I just saw some idiot at the gym put a water bottle in the Pringles holder on the treadmill.” (10/15/2017)
> 
> Let me apologize ahead of time for this what you’ll be reading next. This chapter contains mentions of mental disorders and bullying, drug use and thoughts of suicide. I’m so sorry if I made you feel uncomfortable as you read this.

Sawada Iemitsu was the son of Timoteo di Vongola’s younger half sister and her lover, a man who just so happened to be the last living descendent from the Primo Vongola himself.

Decades before Iemitsu was born, the Ottavo Vongola, Daniela di Vongola, was a fearsome woman who ruled over her Famiglia with an iron fist in the era of before and after World War II. She never married, but she did bore five children whose fathers were suspected to be her own Guardians. Out of all of them, only her youngest son and daughter possessed Sky Flames. Timoteo had been the Nono Vongola for almost a decade and a half when his little sister became pregnant with her Japanese lover’s child and the couple had eloped to her new husband’s home country.

For years, Timoteo kept in touch with his sister and her family through letters. For the most part, the small family lived a quiet and comfortable life until the letters suddenly stopped shortly after his nephew’s sixteenth birthday. Four years later, the boy finally showed up at Vongola Headquarters. Timoteo learned the unfortunate news that his little sister had died from a terminal illness and her husband perished a year after from a violent construction work accident. With no one to take care of the teenager at the time, the newly-orphaned Iemitsu left Japan and made his way all the way to Italy on foot where his mother’s birth family resided.

Taking the young man under his wing, Timoteo taught him everything he knew about being a Vongola Mafioso. Under his guidance, Iemitsu quickly rose through the ranks and eventually becoming the leader of the CEDEF at the tender age of twenty-four. To celebrate, the young man went back to Japan to visit his parent’s grave. There he met the woman who would eventually become his future wife and the rest was history.

At least… from an objective viewpoint.

What most people didn’t know was that there was something severely wrong with Iemitsu ever since he was a child. People with Sky Flames are naturally sociable and charismatic individuals. However, when there is something wrong with their Sky Flames, their symptoms tend to manifest as certain disorders ranging from autism to full-on sociopathy.

For as long as he can remember Iemitsu had always had trouble emotionally connecting with people, even his own parents. “Love” to him was like “possessiveness.” It’s differentiating on who and what he wants in his life and what he can do without. And this mindset has worked for him for most of his life. His mother, while he did care about her, was too trusting blind to realize the signs with her son, and his father, the family’s sole breadwinner, was often away working long hours in order to support all of them. Early on, he learned how to “train” himself to be “normal” so no one can be the wiser about what’s wrong with him. It got more and more easier for him as the years passed until it was like breathing for him.

Then his parents died. First, his beautiful, loving mother to a rare, untreatable disease and then his father when one of his co-workers pulled a malicious prank that ultimately caused him to fall off the skyscraper he was on sixteen floors down to his death. The incident was covered up by the company to save face, but Iemitsu knew better.

The night after the funeral, he snuck into the co-worker’s apartment and burned the man alive with his newly Awakened Sky Flames. The fire spread throughout the entire building. All of the tenants, save the co-worker, got out in time, but they will experience lung issues for the rest of their lives due to smoke inhalation. The firefighters later concluded that it was the co-worker’s smoking habits that had caused the tragedy since the man was well-known to be a chain-smoker with a habit of leaving his still burning cigarette butts around and forgetting about them.

Satisfied ad still riding on the high of his revenge, Iemitsu left Japan to track down his maternal family… and he was only seventeen and a high-school dropout at the time.

It would take about eight more years before he finally set foot in Japan again. And it would take even longer before he spends more than a few days with his wife and only child.

ʅ(°ヮ°)ʃ

Iemitsu had just turned twenty when he first met Xanxus. Shortly after he joined the Vongola Famiglia, Nono introduced him to a dirty little street brat, claiming that the six-year-old waif of a child was his illegitimate son.

He automatically hated the kid on the spot. That little nobody doesn’t deserve the privilege of being related to the Boss. Even if he was the Boss’ illegitimate child, the brat doesn’t belong in the Famiglia… _his_ Famiglia. After all, tainted filth like him doesn’t deserve anything more than to burn in hell for their unholy creation. Maybe after they’ve fulfilled a use or two. One way or another, that son of a rotten whore will be disposed of as he should have been. The Nono doesn’t need to fuss over and dote on a useless bastard child.

So he bided his time. He waited until he gained enough power to completely ruin Xanxus. The Cradle Affair was a thing of beauty. All it took was giving the brat a little tidbit about the Nono’s “dirty little secret” for things to get really heated up. Then he managed to bring Ottabio, the Cloud Officer at the time, and all of his supporters to his side.

Once Xanxus was iced, the entire Varia on probation, and any evidence of his involvement destroyed and/or executed, Iemitsu was finally sitting pretty where he belongs. His Famiglia the way it should, the Nono’s absolute trust and approval, and his adorable family waiting for him.

He’ll be damned if he lets anything ruins it. But just when he was finally tying up some loose ends, the unthinkable happened.

His little Tuna-fishy had punched his own father.

ʅ(°ヮ°)ʃ

Surprisingly, it wasn’t Xanxus who had lost it. It was Tsuna. All the anger and frustration the boy felt towards Iemitsu was channeled into the overpowered punch he threw at the man’s face, sending him hurtling right through a wall. All of them only blinked for just a second and then the next thing you know, there was an Iemitsu-shaped hole in the hotel wall with Tsuna standing where the CEDEF Boss was, his Flame covered fist outstretched and panting due to his emotional disturbance.

“Why, Tuna-fishy? After everything I’ve done for you and your mother.” Iemitsu practically whined as he struggled to get up. The man even had the gall to childishly pout at his son.

Tsuna glared at the man in front of him in silence as he forced himself to calm down. Taking a deep breath, he began, “The reason why I’m so furious at you is because of everything you _haven’t done_. Where were you when Kaa-san was crying because you never showed up for your wedding anniversary or any of her birthdays? Where were you when our neighbors started spreading cruel rumors about Kaa-san being a delusional whore for having a fake foreigner husband? Where were you when my bullies decided that emotionally tearing me down wasn’t enough for them and they started physically hurting me? Where were you when I almost broke my neck when I was 10 after my bullies thought it would be funny to push me down the stairs? And now after all these years, you are finally here… WHERE ARE THE FUCKING ANSWERS I WANT FROM YOU?!” He ranted at the man.

“That’s what you’re so angry about? Don’t be a spoiled, ungrateful brat, Tsuna. You’re only a kid. Just be patient, you’ll understand someday.” The CEDEF Boss childe, completely ignoring the whole point of Tsuna’s rant.

Tsuna felt his fury bubble up to the danger zone, but then sighed heavily to let it all go. His pathetic sperm-donor was just not worth the effort to go berserker on. “You know what, I’ve had enough of this. Hey, Xanxus, truce?”

“Hn. Don’t tell me what to do, baby trash.” The Varia Boss huffed as he stepped up beside the younger Sky and took out his X-Guns.

Iemitsu sighed in exasperation. “And here I thought this can be resolved with no problems. Oh, well, I’ll use this opportunity to discipline you, Tsuna, for striking your father… After I get rid of the _filth_.” The blond man spat out the word as he went to slice his pickax on Xanxus’ neck.

The dark-haired man effortlessly dodged and took the opportunity to shot at the man while Tsuna jumped in to make his own attack while the CEDEF Boss was distracted by the barrage of Wrath Flame Bullets.

Xanxus and Tsuna’s respective Guardians were about to come to their aid, but they were immediately held back by the other people in the room. “Nobody interfere. This is now a battle of honor between Tsuna and Xanxus against Iemitsu,” said Dino as he and Romario stood in the way.

“Oh? And what are we supposed to do while they fight? Sit here and look pretty.” Mukuro sneered at them.

“If Iemitsu attacks any one of you, Tsuna and Xanxus are automatically the victors by default then we are allowed join the battle to execute him.” Reborn replied. To be honest, the Sun Arcobaleno was hoping that Iemitsu might try something so he has a chance to put a Chaos Bullet in his head.

“He’s right! We should have faith in Juudaime!” Gokudera declared, making his fellow Guardians make sounds of agreements.

Suddenly, Lussuria began dramatically fretting. “Oh no! While we’re busy uselessly worrying about the Boss, we’ve forgotten that Hari-chan is still trapped with the grouchy Cloud cutie! We need to get them out of there! They don’t know what’s going on up here!”

“Um, I don’t think we have to worry about getting them out, kora. It looks like Hadrian’s got a plan up his sleeve.” Colonello interrupted as he stared at what’s on the monitor.

Levi squinted at the object Cat Sìth had taken out from the hidden compartment in his jacket. “Wait… isn’t that…?”

Belphegor grinned madly. “Ushishishi, the wildcat’s about to go wild.”

ʅ(°ヮ°)ʃ

After carefully setting Nono down in a corner of the kitchen where he would unlikely to get caught up in what’s about to happen, Cat Sìth took out a small portable syringe containing a bright glowing yellow substance from his jacket pocket and then walked towards the other Cloud. “Hibari-san, I want you to do me a huge favor.”

“What is it?” The Namimori prefect asked.

Holding up the syringe, the Varia Cloud explained, “This is an experimental dose of highly-concentrated Sun Flames. Once I inject this into myself, I have about 5 minutes before it’s supposed to wear off. Before that time limit is up, I need you to do just one thing. If I lose control, almost kill me.”

His Namimori counterpart scowled and the look on his face screamed “what the actual fuck are you planning, herbivore?”

“Basically, I need you to be the one to stop me before my body breaks down from the stress it’ll cause me. And no pulling your punches either. Put me in a coma if you have to. You see, the Sun Flames will increase my body’s activities where all of my physical limits become almost superhuman. However, I just recently got a hang of my Sky Flames, but my control still needs some work. So chances are my Flames will get mixed up with this, not only increasing the amount of the Sun Flames in my system but also enhancing its effects. While it’s good because it will theoretically get us out of here, it’s bad for me because the side effects will kill me if I don’t have someone to watch out for me when I’m under this.”

The Varia had already tested this on other test subjects, even their own agents. They learned that the stress it puts on the Flame User’s causes a variety of post-usage symptoms: muscle tearing, bone fractures, nerve damage. There was even a case where one of their healthiest test subjects experienced cardiac arrest! In addition, it was found that while the concentrated Sun Flames did what it’s supposed to do, seven times out of ten the individual’s Flames will mix with the foreign Flames. If the subject is Flame compatible to the donor, the side effects are pretty mild. Otherwise, the backlash will become much more severe.

The one milliliter dose of Sun Flames Cat Sìth held in his hand was donated from Lussuria so the chances of his Flames rejecting the dose are significantly lowered as the Cloudy-Sky is already familiar with the flamboyant man’s Flames. Of course given his luck, they might cause him to develop symptoms resembling ADHD or something far worse like stealing Xanxus’ Sun Guardian from the man. You never know what will happen when Sky Flames are involved.

“Are you sure you know what you’re doing with that?” Hibari questioned as the Cloudy-Sky teen placed a needle on the syringe.

Cat Sìth chuckled nervously as he stabbed the needle into vein in his neck. “I honestly have no idea.”

Finally, he pushed the plunger home and prayed.

ʅ(°ヮ°)ʃ

Fighting two-on-one against Iemitsu wasn’t as easy as it sounds. After all, the man didn’t become a CEDEF Boss for sitting behind his desk procrastinating on finishing his paperwork. Then again, they weren’t making the fight easy on him either.

Whenever Iemitsu tries to take a shot at Xanxus, Tsuna would be there to intercept it, forcing the man to miss or pull back to prevent himself from seriously harming his son. This gives both of them an opening to strike at the man. While the younger Sky may be inexperienced when it comes to battling older opponents, the red-eyed Varia Boss more than even things out. Contrary to popular belief, his position wasn’t handed to him on a silver platter. Xanxus earned it by beating his Rain in a spar in front of the entire organization, proving that he was Quality to be the one to lead them.

“Y-You…You think that if you beat me… that e-everything will be better?!” The heavily wounded Iemitsu wheezed as he stood unsteadily on his feet. The man looked worse for wear. His clothes were burnt, various bruises and injuries decorated his entire being, his left arm was missing and the stump painfully cauterized, and half of his pickax was melted.

“Maybe not, but hitting you a couple of times sure makes me feel a lot better.” Tsuna quipped back, making the Varia Boss beside him snort.

The two, while far better off, sported singed clothes. Xanxus was relatively fine if one ignored his bloodied nose and the large gash on his leg while Tsuna has a swollen lip and a sizable bruise on his left side.

“Before we continue any further, there’s something I want to know…” Tsuna said to the blond man.

“What is it now?” Iemitsu groaned as he rolled his eyes.

“Is it normal for someone’s Flames to be eating away at their bodies?” His son asked.

The CEDEF Boss looked genuinely confused by Tsuna’s statement. “…What?”

“Ever since the Ring Battles started, my Intuition has been pulsing like a headache at the back of my head, warning me about something. I didn’t realize it before until I threw the first punch at you. There was something really wrong with your Flames that I just couldn’t put my finger on.” The amber-eyed teen explained.

“Baby trash. What the fuck are you getting at? Does he have some sort of screwy disease or something?” Xanxus demanded.

“Uh, yes? No? I…I don’t know. My Intuition is screaming, but I can’t tell because I’ve never experienced something like this before. Um, actually, I want to try something extreme. What I’m planning had worked with Mukuro last time, but I don’t know if it’ll work again on _him_.” The young brunet tried to clarify to the best of his abilities.

The red-eyed man raised an eyebrow at the young teen. “Do I even want to fucking know?”

Tsuna thought about it a little before shaking his head. “…It’s hard to explain, so I’ll tell you later. Think you can give me a few seconds?”

“He’s barely standing as it is.” Xanxus scoffed as he brought his guns up and shot another round of Wrath Flame bullets at Iemitsu, which the blond man dodged by slamming himself against the wall.

Suddenly, the wall started to let out a loud steady metallic groan and began concaving more and more like there is some sort of force that’s repeatedly hitting itself against the wall.

“That’s impossible!” The CEDEF Boss gasped out as he staggered back after the next impact barely glanced the side of his head.

Finally the Flame-reinforced wall gave away, revealing the purple Flame covered fist of Cat Sìth whose veins on the exposed skin of his hand and arms were pulsating glowing a bright yellow. Removing his arm with a ferocious growl, he began viciously tearing apart the wall from the hole he just created.

“Wao. That was fast.” Hibari commented as he came out of the exit Cat Sìth had made shortly before he finally collapsed after the dose of Sun Flames wore off.

Squalo immediately jumped in and grabbed the Cloud Officer before Iemitsu had any ideas. “VOI! I got the shitty cat! Luss, get to healing!”

“You got it, Squ-chan~! (VOOOI!! DON’T CALL ME, ‘SQU-CHAN’!!!)” Lussuria chirped as the petite teen was laid out in front of him. “Oh dear, while it doesn’t look like you’re experiencing Flame Rejection, but you certainly did a number on your body. I’m putting you on strict rest and relaxation for the next few days, okay?” He said after finishing up his treatment.

“Why is it that I keep getting hurt lately? Is someone out there having a sadistic streak that’s spilling over onto me simply because they don’t know what to do with me for events such as this?” Cat Sìth grumbled miserably.

While this is happening, Xanxus took the distraction to pin Iemitsu to the floor, allowing Tsuna to have full access to the man. Taking the opportunity, Tsuna took his Flames and grabbed the CEDEF Boss by the head, repeating the process that defeated Mukuro in the first place and allowing his Dying Will Flames to purify Iemitsu’s warped Flames.

“What… What in the fucking hell did you just do to him?!” The Varia Boss demanded with wide eyes as he watched the man suddenly go limp and fall unconscious.

“I purified his Flames. I’m not sure I can accurately describe it, but it’s like that his Flames were slowly hurting him. It’s like his body is trying to fight back against something there, but his Flames is doing more harm than good.” The exhausted Tsuna explained in between pants.

The dark-haired man nodded but said nothing. Flame-related ailments are nothing to sneeze at and are often pretty hard to detect unless you know what you’re looking for. After seeing firsthand what the younger Sky was fully capable of at t=his age, Xanxus was finally able to make his decision. “Oi, baby trash,” he called out to the brunet boy and flipped him his half of the Vongola Sky Ring. “Here, you earned it. Don’t screw up, or I’ll kill you then take over the Famiglia in your stead.”

Catching the half-ring, Tsuna took out his own and pieced them together. Then when he placed the completed ring on his middle finger, it immediately burst into bright orange Flames and began glowing brightly as the ring shrank down to fit him. The metal continued to flare orange Sky Flames as it pulsated gently on his hand.

The Vongola Sky Ring has accepted him as the Decimo.

“T-T-The w-winner of the V-Vongola Ring Battles i-is Sawada Ts-Tsunayoshi. F-From now on, Sawada Tsunayoshi is the rightful heir to the title of Decimo Vongola. Your G-Guardians may now take their rightful rings.” One of the Cervello women announced. All of them were still nervous over what had just happened so far.

As the Namimori teens reclaimed their respective rings to cement their positions as the Guardians of the Decimo, Tsuna turned towards the man who he once was supposed to call his father. “Sawada Iemitsu di Vongola. From this point onwards, I am disowning you. If Kaa-san ever finds it in her heart to forgive you after everything you’ve done, then she’s a far better person than I am.” Tsuna whispered to the comatose man at his feet before finally letting the tears fall.

“I HATE YOU!” He screamed out in anguish. “I HATE YOU SO MUCH! No matter what, I’ve never hated the people who’ve abused me. Not even Xanxus or Mukuro can bring out this ugly feeling after everything they’ve done to me and my friends. Maybe that’s the reason why I can put up with everything and not fall off the deep end. It’s because I hate you so much that there’s no room left for me to hate anyone else… Not even myself.”

ʅ(°ヮ°)ʃ

If someone were to ask him how he would define what a father to him is, Tsuna would’ve drawn up a blank trying to describe that one word. It actually happened once in grade school during a class assignment. His teacher gave each of her students a word that they were supposed to describe to the best of their ability. Some had easy words like “trees” or “cookies.” Others took to pantomiming a situation around more difficult words like “dangerous” or “amazing.”

Seven year old Tsuna, however, was unlucky enough to be assigned “father.” So when it was finally his turn to describe his word to the entire class, all he could do was stutter “I don’t know.” This immediately made some of classmates whisper ugly things about him to each other like how he’s only seen with his mother but never with his father and how he once scored multiple zeroes on his assignments last year.

Without saying a word to stop the cruel rumors formulating around the classroom, the teacher suggested Tsuna describe _his father_ with a tone that made him feel like he’s three and not seven. He immediately innocently asked her, “What’s a father supposed to be like?” The look on her face made the young boy feel even worse about himself. Her face had this fake look of understanding and pity, but he can tell from her eyes that were mocking him and his situation.

The nickname “Dame-Tsuna” was born after he caused his whole team to lose a game. And that was only the start.

As the years passed things only got worst. Girls would spread all sorts of nasty stuff about him with just their words and boys would take every opportunity to physically beat him to submission. By the time, he entered his first year of middle school, his self-confidence was nonexistent, his and his mother’s reputation was in the negative, and practically no one wanted to be associated with him. There were days when he’s thought about what it would be like to just end everything. No wonder Reborn had his work cut out for him when he started tutoring Tsuna.

Then one day, he was beaten to the point where he needed to be sent to the hospital. When he woke up after being unconscious for three whole days, he saw his mother’s smiling face, but there was a tightness that didn’t seem right. He would later find out that she had tried to call his father about his condition only to be immediately sent to voicemail or that the numbers she dialed were disconnected.

And it happened again and again. Until eventually, his mother just stopped calling him altogether.

There are days when Tsuna thought about whether or not Iemitsu actually loved them. There are also days when he thought about whether or not his mother loved her husband more than him. And more frequently, there were days when he thought about how things would be much better for her if her Dame-son was out of the picture. It was a torturous thought process that haunted him for most of his life.

Now he had taken her husband away from his mother. He doubted that she would forgive him. Here he was, heavily bandaged and sitting upright on his bed. Like a man preparing to hear his death sentence, he waited for his mother to enter the room so she could finally denounce him for almost killing the man she loves.

Never one to disappoint, Nana came into her son’s room bearing a tray that contained a large pitcher of cool water and his painkillers. The woman said nothing as she arranged the tray on his desk and poured out a fresh glass for him, all while humming to herself quietly.

“Kaa-san, do you hate me for doing that to him?” Tsuna asked her quietly after several minutes of silence between them.

Stopping in her tracks, Nana set everything down, sat down next to him on his bed, and wrapped her arms around her child in an attempt to ease her son’s worries. “Oh my sweet baby boy. Never. I could never hate you no matter what.”

“But I practically lobotomized your husband. I practically destroyed him. You loved him. You still do… even after everything he’s done. So how can you not hate me?” He asked anxiously.

For a while, Nana was silent as she carefully thought over what she would say to comfort her son. Finally, she opened her mouth and let her feelings speak for themselves. “…I loved the man I thought Iemitsu was. The man he fabricated with half-baked lies and delusions. Like a love-struck idiot I was, I happily fell for it. But when I first found out about Basil-kun and the affair, I had already known that I would’ve forgiven him even though I shouldn’t. I had made up my mind that when I could finally look at him and not get upset at his betrayal, I could even find it in myself to learn how to love the man hiding behind those lies. But that was my wishful thinking.”

“But I stole that opportunity away from you!” The brunet teen protested.

“But you’ve set me free. You’ve set _us_ free.” Nana continued. “If Iemitsu were still around, I would still be pining for the husband Iemitsu couldn’t be, and you would still be hating the man Iemitsu couldn’t help but be. Yes, I’m still mourning for what I’ve lost, but I won’t let that stop me from doing my best to move on.”

As he mulled over her words, Tsuna turned around and hugged her. “…Kaa-san…I love you,” he mumbled into her shoulder.

“I love you too, Tsu-kun. Always.” Nana said back.

ʅ(°ヮ°)ʃ

After comforting her son, Nana made her way to the hospital where the Mafia had temporarily taken over to treat their injured. Seeing as she is the wife of the CEDEF Boss, the housewife was allowed in the room by Dino’s men. There, she found Shamal, Lussuria, and Reborn are all congregated in Iemitsu’s room, working on the man’s battered body.

“Kyaaa~! Look at all the damage Tsu-kun inflicted on him~! You must be as proud as a father, Reborn.” Lussuria cooed.

“Of course Tsuna would perform above and beyond. For the last one-and-a half years, I put his mind, body, and soul through hell so he can give his enemies hell. And I expect nothing less from my student.”

“Aww, my little Tsu-kun would cry hearing your confidence in him. He’s sensitive towards praise that way.”

“Nana-chan~! What a blessing it is to see your lovely presence in this dreary room~.” The mafia doctor gushed at the sight of the woman.

“Hello to you too, Doctor Shamal. Before we get off topic, have you found anything wrong with Iemitsu’s Flamey problem thing?”

“Flames, darling.” Lussuria corrected before continuing. “Not yet, we’re focusing on the worst of his physical injuries before moving on to his Flames.”

“Normally, we’d at least do a Flame diagnostic first, but your husband has internal bleeding, seven broken ribs, a collapsed lung, over 50 fractures littered throughout his body, second and third-degree burns, a missing arm, and a ruptured spleen. And on top of all of that, a severe concussion and massive amounts of blood loss. Frankly, I was surprised that the stubborn bastard was able to keep fighting with his body so wrecked by Xanxus and Tsuna.” Shamal said with Nana turning paler as the list went on and on.

“Anyways, we’re just about done healing the worst of it. Now that’s not going to die anytime soon, we can finally check out his Flames.” Reborn informed her.

Lussuria clapped his hands together in cheers. “Now then, let’s get started, dearies~! You can stay for this, Mama-chan. However, the results might not be pretty judging from what Tsuna had said about him.”

Using the Flame examination machine that Shamal had Dino’s men bring in for situations such as this, he turned it on and took a close look at the abnormalities occurring in Iemitsu’s Flames. There were fresh traces of Sun Flames, thanks to Reborn and Lussuria’s efforts in healing him, as well as relatively recent Sky Rejection damage, most likely from an attempt to force Tsuna to submit to the man some time during their battle. He even found the areas where Tsuna’s Flames had purified the decaying areas. For a while, they couldn’t detect anything wrong until the perverted doctor realized that the places where Tsuna has purified are centered around the CEDEF Boss’ cranium and spinal cord area. What he found was very alarming.

“ _Flame Creep_! How did we all miss _this_?!” Shamal hissed sharply as he quickly pulled away from Iemitsu in horror.

Reborn’s infantile features darkened. “…The same way we missed Hadrian’s Sky Flames. Much like Hadrian burying his primary with his secondary to hide that he’s a Sky, Iemitsu has secondary Mist Flames. He’s been using them to hide for so long that he was even able to hide that he has more than one Flame attribute so the thought that he’s developed a secondary has never crossed our minds.”

“Excuse me, but…what is this Flame Creep? It’s serious, is it?” Nana asked the men. She didn’t need to have Hyper Intuition to know that Flame Creep is very, very bad news.

Shamal rubbed his face in exhaustion as he explained. “Flame Creep isn’t necessarily a disease but a condition that typically only shows up in the Mafia World. It’s dangerous Flame-related condition that tends to appear in children with significantly strong Flames. For the most part, children don’t normally activate their Flames until they’re much older, but in some cases, there are children who become Active early in their lives, or even rarer, are born Active. In Flame Creep cases, these early bloomers with their uncontrollable Latent Flames that are on the verge of being fully Active, are ultra-sensitive to outside Flame influence. This can severely affect how their bodies react negatively to their own Flames. As a result, it puts damage on their minds and bodies in a variety of ways depending on what Element they have.” The grim revelation makes the poor woman gasped in despair.

“You know, come to think of it, this does explain why after all these years, Sawada never bonded with a Guardian.” Lussuria mentioned. Sure, his closest subordinates, Oregano and Tumeric, have worked under him for years and are loyal to boot, not once had anyone detected even a whiff of a Guardian bond between the CEDEF Boss and any of his subordinates.

“C-Come to think of it, Basil-kun did mention something about how it never felt right trying to bond with Iemitsu. Dissonance or something like that, I think. I-Is it possible that he can be cured from this?” Nana pleaded with a trembling voice.

Reborn shook his head at her grimly, making her heart drop. “It’s too late for him. Flame Creep damage as severe as his can’t be fixed. Frankly, I’m not sure if he’ll be able to use Flames ever again due to the damage it’s caused him over the years. Other than giving him a mercy kill (which I doubt you and Tsuna want), the best option for him is healing him enough so that he can at least continue living as a functional human being. All we can do after that is give him a place where he can live without hurting anyone else.”

By the time the sun sets, Nana had left the hospital and went home feeling lost and her heart in turmoil. What will her son do once he hears about this? What should she do from now on? Can she find the strength to move on from this? Those questions swirled around constantly in her mind as she struggled to find a solution.

Just as she entered the door, she was greeted to the sounds of Fuuta, Lambo, and I-pin happily playing with each other in the living room and the chaotic antics of Tsuna and his friends up in his room. She heard steps going down the stairs and saw that it was her son coming down with a tray of empty glasses.

“Oh, Kaa-san, you’re back. Did everything go okay then?” Tsuna said as he spotted her at the front door.

“…No, it’s not okay.” Nana replied to him listlessly. Then a soft smile slowly appeared on her face. “It’s just… I guess I was worrying about too many things that will happen in the future from now on.” She mumbled mostly to herself as the two made their way into the kitchen.

As Tsuna went to refill the glasses with refreshments, Nana sat down and buried her face in her hands. The brunet boy, seeing this out of the corner of his eye, realized that something had happened with Iemitsu that made her like this.

Not knowing what else to do in this situation, he decided to do the only thing he can think of. Reassurance. “Kaa-san! I…That is… I swear I won’t worry you too much!” Tsuna declared.

His mother looked up and blinked in confusion. “Tsu-kun?”

“I’m going to become the Decimo Vongola so… Now that I’m a part of the Mafia, I can’t guarantee that I’ll always be safe or not in danger… But I promise you that I’ll stay alive… So we can still have dinner together again next time… along with the kids, my friends, and everyone else,” he said, trailing off in embarrassment over his new bravado.

For a few moments, the kitchen was silent until a giggle left Nana’s lips, then another, then another, until she dissolved into full-blown laughter. Looking at her son with tears of relief in her eyes, she got up and happily embraced him.

“Kaa-san?” Tsuna said as he awkwardly returned her hug.

“I’ve finally made my decision, Tsu-kun,” she whispered as she held her son tighter. “I know that I can’t protect you from your enemies, but I can at least have faith that you’ll always be okay some way or another. Thank you, Tsu-kun. Thank you.”

A month later, Nana divorced Iemitsu. While it hurt her to have to do that to her now ex-husband, it ended up being one of the best decisions she could ever make as a mother.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again I apologize if I offended any of my readers in any way because of the sensitive subjects brought up in this chapter. After rereading this arc, I don’t think I’m satisfied by what just happen so I’m planning on rewriting the whole Ring Battles Arc. But that doesn’t mean that it’ll be on hiatus or anything. I will be continuing to update Acedia whenever I can, but expect changes in previous chapters as I go. Nothing too drastic, maybe better character interactions, better grammar, and additional scenes here and there.
> 
> Flame Creep: I would like to give credit to Umei no Mai’s story on fanfiction.net, Black Sky, for the idea. If you want more information on this, check out Chapter 184. Basically, Iemitsu’s condition went unnoticed for years because no one, not even him, suspected a thing thanks to his “acting.” While being Flame-Active did elevated his condition somewhat, the damage he’s sustained made it that he’s mentally stuck with near-sociopathic symptoms.
> 
> Iemitsu’s rant about Xanxus burning in hell: I guess I should’ve mentioned this earlier, but Italy is predominately Roman Catholic. Chances are, there’s quite a few Mafiosi align themselves to the Catholic Church. Iemitsu is one of them. By the way, you’ve probably guessed by now that Hadrian more or less converted.


	15. Interlude: Post-Ring Battles Competition

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> FINALLY....... The long awaited confrontation between Hadrian Temperanza of the Varia and Sawada Nana of Namimori........ Who will win? Who will lose? Find out now on the VONGOLA-STYLE COOKING COMPETITION!!!!!!!!!! (๑•̀ㅁ•́ฅ✧

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Funny Food Quote: “Chocolate comes from cocoa, which is a tree, that makes it a plant. Chocolate is salad!” (10/15/17)

“I wonder whose EXTREME cooking is better. Mama’s or Hadrian’s.” Ryohei asked one evening during dinner at the Sawada house.

A long pregnant pause stretch throughout the dining room as everyone quietly mulled over the subject.

“Kitten, hands down.” Xanxus being the first to interrupt the silence without hesitation as he took another bite of his chicken.

“I don’t know. Hari-san’s cooking is pretty great and all, but... call me biased, I’d say Kaa-san’s is much better.” Tsuna commented.

“I agree wholeheartedly. There’s something about a mother’s touch that makes things infinitely better.” Basil chimed in, making his younger brother raise his glass of juice so the two can clink it together in cheers.

“Aww, Tsu-kun, Basil-kun ~. Thank you~.” Nana cooed with a slight blush, touched by her sons’ confidence in her.

“Sorry, dears, but I’ll have to disagree. For one thing, Hari-chan’s knowledge on the art of cuisine is much more broader than Mama-chan’s.” Lussuria chimed in as he took a dainty nibble of his sandwich.

“Hmm. But if we’re talking about Japanese foods specifically, then Mama’s got him beat.” Yamamoto pointed out.

“…You know he does have a point.” Hadrian said with a thoughtful look. His cooking isn’t really restricted to a specific style or culture so if you were to ask him to strictly stick to only using Japanese ingredients and cooking techniques, then he’d immediately be disqualified on the spot because he’ll unconsciously deviate to fill in the blanks that his knowledge of Japanese recipes lack.

“Ushishi. Two words: Cloud Flames. The kitten can use it to propagate certain aspects of the ingredients to manipulate the flavor and nutritional value of the meal.” Belphegor pointed out.

“Using your Flames in a cooking competition is cheating! Juudaime’s mother has more years of experience on Hadrian-san! Without his Flames, I bet he’d only be half as good as Mama’s skills.” Hayato argued, slamming his chopsticks onto the table.

“Not if it’s a Vongola-Style Cooking Competition. Then anything goes.” Reborn scoffed as he sipped his cup of espresso. Mmmm, dark roast.

“Don’t tell me… Really, Reborn?” Dino said exasperatedly at his former tutor. He should’ve known that the babyfied hitman would take the opportunity to cause his own brand of chaos right after the Vongola Ring Battles.

“You thinking what I’m thinking, kora?” Colonello said with an eager grin.

“Muu, I’ll open up a betting pool while we’re at it. I’ll start it off with my bet of 100 Euros on Hadrian.” Mammon announced after finishing their strawberry milk. Everyone immediately jumped in to place their bets.

“So it’s settled then. Hadrian Temperanza and Sawada Nana will compete against each other in a cooking battle. To make things interesting, everyone in this room save for them is a judge. The winner is decided by who wins over the most people with the loser being forced to eat the worst dish the winner can make in front of everyone. We will discuss the theme by popular vote later on.” Timoteo declared as he calmly put down his knife and fork.

“Oooh~ this is going to be so fun! Nee, Hari-kun, make sure you make me extras so I can try your dish, okay~?” Nana squealed as she turned to her soon-to-be opponent.

“I should say the same to you. May the best cook win. And no hard feelings afterwards.” Hadrian replied to her with a nod of agreement.

ʅ(°ヮ°)ʃ

After some intense deliberation, the theme was finally agreed upon by the judges. Curry. The established rules are simple enough.

First, they are given a whole week before the day of the competition to prepare. During this time, the two participants are allowed to bring in any ingredients or additional equipment they can get their hands on before the contest starts. Then once the cooking begins, the two competing chefs will have four hours to complete their dish for everyone. By the end of the time limit, the tasting will begin, presentation also matters as well. Afterwards, all the judges will give their final verdict in the form of presenting the side that had the face of their chosen champion printed on a sign they are given shortly before the judging begins.

Nono decided that for the heck of it he would contribute to the competition. He strolled into the nearest high-class restaurant and rented it out just for that day. Just six hours before the start of the event, he had his men take over their massive, fully functional kitchen and have everything cleaned and sanitized. The Vongola Boss also took it further by replacing all the kitchen appliances with new and improved versions. No need for the two chefs to work in sub-par conditions. Besides, Xanxus and Tsuna would get mad at him.

Finally, it was time for the two contestants to start cooking. Barely half a second after Reborn shot his Leon gun into the air, both Hadrian and Nana were already in their stations chopping, mixing, and cutting things like a man and woman possessed.

“Hahi, what’s Hari-san doing with all those tomatoes?” Haru cried out upon seeing Hadrian using his Cloud Flames to increase the number of tomatoes he brought so he could stuff the bottom of the large pots he brought with him.

Gokudera carefully scrutinized what the older teen was doing before making his best guess. “Hmm… he’s placed them all at the bottom and already heating up the pot. I think he might be trying to use the water released from the tomatoes for his curry instead of adding any other liquid to it.”

“Never mind the tomatoes… Look at what Mama-chan’s doing~!” Lussuria squealed, forcing all of their attentions toward Tsuna’s mother.

Nana was quietly singing to herself as she wheeled out a heavy cart containing ten whole monkfishes. Each of them were massive, weighing between twenty to twenty-five kilograms. Moving up to and area of the kitchen where she had set up several hooks ready to suspend her fish as she butchered them.

“Are those… MONKFISH?! THEY’RE EXTREMELY HUGE!!” Ryohei exclaimed as he watched the dainty housewife get ready. With an impressive strength for a woman her size, the dainty housewife hefted a particularly sizable one and hooked its lower jar on the sturdy metal hook.

“Oh!” Yamamoto exclaimed, pounding his fist in the palm of his hand in realization. “So that explains why she wanted to speak with Oyaji privately the other day. He gets really great deals from our local fishermen.” He said as he looked to his father, who sat next to him.

He knew that his father and Tsuna’s mother have been pretty close friends for as long as he can remember. The baseball-loving boy noticed that Nana had been visiting the sushi chef a lot recently. Initially, Yamamoto had thought that she needed her friend’s comfort and support after Iemitsu’s execution. Turns out, that wasn’t entirely the case.

This also explained why Tsuyoshi was a part of the many judges on the panel. He may be a retired yakuza hitman and in-the-know about the Mafia World, but he didn’t come here just to give his professional opinion on Japanese cuisine.

“Is she really planning on cutting it while they’re all hanging on a hook like that? Wouldn’t it be easier for Nana to do everything on a counter or something?” Bianchi asked.

“Muu. The monkfish has a slimy gelatinous coating that makes it very difficult to cut it up on a chopping board. This method is a traditional way to butcher a monkfish.” Mammon explained.

“Voi! It takes a lot of skill to cut up that fish while it’s hanging in midair. Even I’ll have trouble doing that.” Squalo commented, keeping his eyes on her as she took out her knife.

“No offense to Nana-san, but I guess when you’re a single housewife, you’ll find that you have plenty of time to kill.”

One after another, her audience watched as she effortlessly cut up all ten of the monkfish with a finesse of an experienced knife user. Even Hadrian briefly paused to watch as the woman reduced a monstrous fish to only its mouth and spine before moving on to the next one. Finally, she was done, and Nana wheeled way a trolley containing all the important edible parts of the monkfish, leaving behind the still hanging remains of the butchered sea creatures as a reminder of her impressive feat.

“Oyaji, did you teach Mama to do all of that?” Yamamoto breathed with awe after she was finally done.

Tsuyoshi grinned at their gobsmacked expressions with good humor. “What do you kids think she’s been doing while you’re all out playing and doing your own thing? I’ve been teaching her how to make sushi ever since Tsunayoshi started going to school. In fact, she just got her license to prepare fugu, just so you know.”

ʅ(°ヮ°)ʃ

“Let the tasting begin. Ladies first. So if you please, Mama.” Reborn requested to the dainty housewife.

Nana hummed as she danced around the room to carefully placed a bowl in front of everyone. Inside was an elegant arrangement of vegetables and monkfish meat sitting on the reddish-gold curry broth.

“This is monkfish dobu-jiru curry. I know it’s a little late, but I wanted to give all of you a hot pot dish that will make all of you feel welcome to Namimori. Please enjoy your meals.” Nana said to them cheerfully.

The moment they tasted her dish, a wave of warmth filled them. Suddenly, they feel like they were right at home, even the Vongola’s elite assassination squad couldn’t help but let down their guards once they’ve had a mouthful.

“It’s so delicious~! Normally, you add miso and sake after you cook the monkfish liver until it dissolves, but instead you put in curry spices to make it into a liver curry miso base for flavor.” Shamal commented, impressed with Nana’s ingenuity.

“Mama, Lambo-san recognizes these vegetables! They’re kogiku pumpkin, tachikawa burdock, and red daikon.” Lambo cried out as he devoured his hot pot.

“Very good, Lambo-chan.” Nana cooed before she explained herself. “The tricky part for me is to balance the sweetness and bitterness of the vegetables and the strong curry spices. Thankfully, the monkfish liver helped out in bridging the two together without the curry overshadowing the taste of the vegetables.”

Once everyone was done with the hot pot, it was now time for Hadrian to impress them.

“Next up, we have Hadrian. Now if you please present your dish.” Reborn gestured to the Cloudy-Sky teen who began passing out a plate containing a single serving of pizza dough that was folded in half and stuffed with filling before the whole thing was oven-baked.

“Ooh, is this an Italian calzone? Looks like Nana-san’s got her work cut out for her. Most of us judges are from Italy so a taste of their homeland will surely win over their vote.” Tsuyoshi commented as the dish was placed in front of him.

The petite Varia Officer shrugged. “It’s too early to say that. By the way, it’s not your typical calzone. The surprise factor is that instead of the usual pizza ingredients, I put my curry inside of it.”

“He’s right. IT’S LIKE AN EXTREME ITALIAN VERSION OF OUR JAPANESE CURRY BREAD!!!” Ryohei exclaimed after he eagerly took a bite of his calzone and found the bright-red tomato curry baked inside the folded pizza dough.

“The curry is so rich and juicy~! How’d you make it so that the tomatoes are completely balanced with the curry?” Kyoko asked as she savored the bite she just took.

“I used only the juices from the tomatoes so it doesn’t dilute the flavor. Then I added a mix of spices to complement the sourness as well as a rich curry you can distinguish from the tomatoes.” Hadrian explained.

“And the dough is amazing, kora. Not only is it pretty crispy, but there’s this sweet springy feel that goes really well with your curry.” Colonello complimented.

“Thank you very much. That’ll be my handmade grape yeast that I had baked into the batter. I’d be a fool if I only focused on the curry and not pay attention to making the dough enhance the flavor more.” The Varia chef said.

ʅ(°ヮ°)ʃ

“Alright. Now that the taste test is done, it’s time to cast your votes. When I say go, we all pick up our signs and flip to whomever we believe should be the winner.”

“Uno… Due… Tre… Go!”

On Nana’s camp, she won over Tsuna, Yamamoto, Ryohei, Hibari, Lambo, I-pin, Fuuta, Basil, Reborn, Hana, Xanxus, Ken, Lancia, Falco, and Tsuyoshi.

The people on Hadrian’s side, on the other hand, consisted of Lussuria, Squalo, Belphegor, Mammon, Levi, Gokudera, Hedwig, Dino, Colonello, Kyoko, Haru, Chikusa, Shamal, Bianchi, and Timoteo.

“BOSS, YOU TRAITOR!! HOW COULD YOU?! HARI-CHAN, SAY SOMETHING!!” Lussuria wailed dramatically the instance he saw Xanxus’ chosen winner.

“I don’t blame you. One bite and you feel like you’re relaxing comfortably under a kotatsu. Plus hers is more visually pleasing than mine.” Hadrian drawled as he continued to savor Nana’s cooking.

“BUT HARI-CHAN~!!” The Sun whined.

“Levi, it’s too late change your mind. Your vote has already been recorded.” Reborn said to the man when he flipped his sign over in wanting to support his Boss’ preferences.

“B-B-But…” The Varia Lightning sputtered with a tortured look.

“I…I’m…I’M SO SORRY, JUUDAIME! I have no excuse. Hadrian-san’s calzone called out to me more.” Gokudera sobbed out in shame.

The Decimo-to-be awkwardly patted his friend’s back in an attempt to comfort him. “I-It’s fine, Hayato-kun! Everyone’s entitled to their own opinions. Plus, I can see how you Hari-san’s food over Kaa-san’s. The calzone felt like you are cannonballing into a pool of tomato sauce.” Tsuna said, slightly blushing from the intimate use of the silver-haired teen’s given name. He has yet to get used to how much closer the young Sky is to his friends now that they’ve decided to be on a first-name basis. Yamamoto even made it his new goal to get Tsuna to lose the honorifics with him now that the brunet has gotten the hang of calling him “Takeshi-kun.”

“Hmmm. It looks like it’s an even split between Nana and Hadrian. However, there is one person who hasn’t voted yet.” Timoteo said as he took in the results of the contest.

“Well, Chrome? What’s your answer?” Reborn asked the girl.

To her embarrassment, Chrome was put on the spot as everyone locked their eyes on her expectantly, patiently waiting for her decision. “I…He… We… Mukuro-sama… I don’t…” The flustered female Mist tried to say until she finally replied with an air of resignation. “We can’t decide.”

“VOI! What do you mean you can’t decide?! It’s either the shitty cat or the baby trash’s mama! How hard is it to choose who you think is the better cook?!” Squalo ranted.

“I imagine it’s _very hard_ , especially if the votes are split.” Dino commented, giving the eye patch-wearing girl a knowing look. “Let me guess you’re including Mukuro on this. But the two of you won’t agree on who should win.”

Chrome reluctantly nodded. “Mukuro-sama can taste the food using my body. He picked Mama as the winner but…”

“But?”

“…but I disagreed because I wanted to vote for Hari-san. So regardless of who _I_ think is the winner, _we_ can’t decide.”

Timoteo stroked his chin in thought. “Very interesting. So that settles it then. It’s a tie.” The old man concluded.

“WWWWHHHHAATTT?!” Everyone cried in disbelief.

“And since there’s no winner. That means both of you count as losers.” Reborn finished.

Absolute pandemonium ensued as a massive fight broke out between the more violent members of the judges over who should’ve been the winner of the Vongola Cooking Contest.

“Fufufufu. Do your worst, Hari-kun.” Nana said to her fellow chef as she delicately covered her mouth mischieviously. The two competing chefs were completely unfazed by the chaos happening in front of them.

“Don’t underestimate what my stomach can take, Nana-san… Bring it on.” Hadrian replied back with a determined gleam in his emerald-green eyes.

ʅ(°ヮ°)ʃ

“Is that an animal’s brain or something?” Levi questioned, looking like he wanted to poke at the contents in the bowl just out of curiosity.

“Ushishishi. Not even close. I recognize this delicacy. It’s shirako.” Belphegor explained.

“Shirako? What the fuck? What kind of food literally means ‘white children’?” Xanxus said as he scowled in confusion.

Hadrian stared at all of them with a straight face. “The kind that’s literally milt. Or to be specific… it’s cod. Think ‘lattume’ only this is raw and sushi.”

Complete silence.

“Muu. Just out of curiosity, what did you give Mama-chan? I hope it’s not too bad.” Mammon asked, breaking the silence.

An aura of depression suddenly descended on their Cloud Officer. “…I tried to make sanguinaccio dolce.” The teen finally admitted.

Dead silence.

“VOOOOOIII!!!! _YOU MADE_ _A DESSERT_?! We have to hurry and get that thing away from her!! The shitty brats are going to go ballistic if it burrows through her stomach or something!!” Squalo screeched as he got ready to bolt just in case it was already too late.

“Relax, it’s fine _now_. After I knifed the thing a few times, it somehow turned into blood tofu when it died. I even poke it a few time to make sure it wasn’t sentient anymore and ate a couple of bites just to make sure it’s absolutely safe for consumption.”

“You know one of the conditions is that the loser, or losers in this case, have to eat the other person’s worst dish.” Levi pointed out.

“Are you telling me that you _want_ Nana-san to suffer? Bloody chocolate, by far, is the best and only dessert treat that doesn’t eat you back. Just be glad it’s not another incident like with Xanxus’ birthday cake.” The Cloudy-Sky said dryly as he stuffed a bite of his shirako in his mouth.

Not bad. Tastes pretty buttery for fish sperm.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DOUBLE UPDATE!!! This was a fun chapter to make. A nice break after the whole Ring Battles song and dance, is it? I like to thank CallmeCrazylol of fanfiction.net for the idea of a cook-off between Hadrian and Nana~ Hope it’s to your liking~!
> 
> Hadrian’s calzone and Nana’s hot pot: Check out Shokugeki no Soma (Food Wars) chapters 47-59 or episodes 20-24 for the Toutsuki Autumn Election Arc. That’s where my inspiration for this chapter comes from.
> 
> Shirako and lattume: To summarize, they’re fish sperm sacs. Both are delicacies in their respective countries with Japan preparing it in a variety of ways, typically using cod, salmon, anglerfish, pufferfish, and squid, where else Italy uses tuna milt as a pasta topping in Sicilian cuisine.
> 
> Sanguinaccio dolce and blood tofu: The former is basically pork blood made into a creamy and sweet pudding flavored with ingredients like chocolate, milk, raisons, sugar, etc. The latter, on the other hand, is pig blood curd, otherwise known as xuě dòufǔ or blood pudding. It’s a Cantonese delicacy that’s popular in Hong Kong and southern China and served with noodles or congee (rice porriage).


	16. Warning: Not An Actual Update But There Is A Sneak Peak

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Basically an AN... Sorry about this.

**Dearest readers,**

**So I've been getting the occasional PMs asking me "when will I update?" or the review that begs me "PLZPLZPLZ MOAR GIMME A NEW CHAPTER THISISTOOGOODDON'TLEAVETHISASITIS!"**

**Don't get me wrong. I'm not angry or annoyed at any of you for sending me those types of messages. In fact, I'm flattered that you feel that way. After all, you did take the time and went through the trouble of showing your appreciation to this fic in the only way you knew. It's these messages that encourage me to keep on writing.**

**So to sum, the problem isn't with you guys, it's me. After rereading all of my stories in order to jog my memory on where my stories are heading and what I wanted to do with them, I realized that my previous attempts at writing out my fics COMPLETELY SUCKS ASS! So many things went wrong, and so many cringey moments that should never exist. (Seriously, what was thinking with how half-assed the Ring Battles Arc went? And don't get me started on how I portrayed Hadrian's character!)**

**So I decided to just rewrite all 15 chapters. The story will remain more or less the same, but there will be some major revisions. Let me make this clear right now. _I am not abandoning this story_. _EVER!_ It would be a betrayal to you and a grave insult to my pride as a writer to do that. However, I will say this. I'm not going to update Acedia until I have chapter 17 written out and ready to be published. This message will be deleted and replaced with the final version of Chapter 16. And once I come back, over half of the current story will be completely different. So I recommend treating this like a rough draft of what my plans for the first two Arcs are. **

**When will I be coming back you might be asking? ...Well, I promised myself that I will finish my revisions by summer or possibly towards the end of the year, but now I'm still not sure...**

**If you haven't read the message on my profile page, once again I apologize to all my readers. I'm really sorry to have to be _that type_ of author, but please keep in mind that there are some things that have happened in a person's life that you just can't control. To all my patient and loyal readers, I thank you for sticking by my side this long. This isn't a goodbye, but a "see you next chapter." **

**Kuroyuki m(_ _)m**

**PS: I wasn't sure if I should include this next part as it's still a work in progress, but I feel like such a dick if I just leave you hanging after all this time without anything to look forward to.**

**Oh well… Enjoy the sneak peak to what will happen in Chapter 16~**  

* * *

Since Neville Longbottom, Fred and George Weasley, Draco Malfoy, and Luna Lovegood were all "legally dead people," new names and identities were needed if they wanted to relocate without anyone becoming suspicious.

Luna took inspiration from her parent's honeymoon. After Xenophilius and Pandora married, they went to Japan and were fascinated by the island nation's extensive array of Magical Creatures. The legend of Kaguya-hime was their favorite folktale. In honor of Xenophilius who had to let go of his wife's surviving legacy in order for his daughter to be happy, and Pandora, who taught her daughter not to fear the unseen world around them, Luna Lovegood became Kaguya Tsukihime.

Much like Luna, Draco also wanted to honor his parents and his heritage. While the Malfoys aren't the best of people, they weren't totally unredeemable. Their love for each other was proof of that. Following his mother's family tradition of names, he chose "Gargouille Serpens" as a reminder of who he was and where he came from.

Surprisingly, Fred and George took the longest to decide. On one hand, this was their chance to become their own individuals rather than be seen as a set. The thought of no longer being "Fred and George" instead of "Fred" _and_ "George was tempting. But on the other hand, they took pride in being identical twins. Both of them can barely imagine life without the other. They weren't ready to let go of each other just yet. In the end, they finally decided to become Vardøger and Eidolon Doppelgänger.

Neville wanted to choose a name that suited him the most. However, he wasn't as creative as the others when it comes to their naming sense, nor could he think of something that would make his new name more meaningful. So he just took out a map, picked out a random country, and chose his name based on the mythological creatures of that area. And thus, Leimakid Hyades was born. (He didn't realize it at the time, but he was the only one who had thought that there was an unspoken pattern to their new names. Turns out, it was just a coincidence that their chosen names happen to fall under a specific theme.)

Once their new personas were constructed, they quickly relocated far away from the United Kingdom and its festering magical war. Within a month, a new apothecary opened up in Sicily, one of Italy's biggest hotbeds of Mafia activity. News that the strictly neutral owners catered to Flame-Users spread and the small shop quickly gained notoriety. When asked why a group of Flame-Active civilians refused to align themselves to any interested Famiglia no matter how prestigious they are, their answer was always somewhere along the lines of this:

We are looking for our Ruling Aspect. 

ʅ(°ヮ°)ʃ

Jaws dropped as Leimakid pulled out an impressive twenty-inch collapsible weapon from his messenger bag. It wasn't only in a disturbingly familiar shape, but it was rainbow colored but with a hint of glitter to make it pretty hard for people to miss even in a large crowd let alone a dark alley. (Which might be the very reason why Leimakid even chose that particular object as a weapon.)

The poor Mafiosi didn't even get a chance to get over the shock before their bodies and their pride were both bludgeoned bloody and blue. By the time, Leimakid was done with all of them, he was nonchalantly wiping away blood and other miscellaneous fluids off of his newly-revealed preferred weapon with a handkerchief stolen from one of the grunts.

"Var, dearest brother?" Eidolon said after he collected his jaw from the center of the Earth.

"Yes, Ei?" Vardøger replied a moment later.

"Did Kid just beat up a bunch of hardened criminals with a giant dildo bat?"

"I thought he was supposed to be the plain one amongst all of us-"

"The unshakable everyday man-"

"The token hetero normie-"

"That one background character in those action cartoon shows who just happen to appear on the scene." 

"I guess being stuck with us for too long made him develop his own questionable quirks."

"Maybe we should leave, my not-as-handsome twin. Our little rabbit looks about ready to jump his bones- ANNND they're snogging so let's hurry up and get going... NOW."

"Last one home has to taste-test Gar's new gender-switching potion."

As the red-haired twins quickly vacated the scene of absolute destruction, Gargouille looked gave them all a long-suffering blank stare. "...Why am I even friends with all of you?"

"Because your life would be boring without us to spice things up."

"Shut up and get back to playing tonsil hockey with your girlfriend, Leimakid! And for your information, I only put up with all of you because you grow the best Potion ingredients with your Copper Aspect." The blond-haired Storm snapped at him without any heat. He then dramatic turned his nose up and added, "And besides, housing is expensive so splitting the bills between your housemates is very cost efficient."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: And with that, I'll see you all next chapter! Now enjoy the following notes that you may or may not care about~ *~ (ゝ。∂)
> 
> Kaguya Tsukihime: Kaguya is a reference to Kaguya-hime (or Princess Kaguya), the main character in the ancient Japanese folktale of The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter. In the story, Kaguya-hime was a princess of the Moon sent to Earth for her safety until the Celestial Beings can reclaim her. Hence where the surname, Tsukihime, which basically means "moon princess," comes from. I'm thinking of making this version of Luna a low-key otaku. Hopefully, I can write her as a likeable anime trash instead of a cringey weeaboo.
> 
> Leimakid Hyades: Leimakid is the name of a subspecies of land nymphs who reside in meadows. Hyades, on the other hand, refer to a group of nymphs sired by the Titan, Atlas. They are credited for causing rain to fall. Was I being too uncreative when I decided this will be Neville's new name?
> 
> Gargouille Serpens: Draco's first name, Gargouille, refers to a legendary dragon that Saint Romanus of Rouen killed with the help of a death row convict with nothing to loss. Serpens is not only a constellation that can be seen in the northern hemisphere, but in Greek mythology, it is the serpent that is associated by the Greek god of healing and medicine, Asclepius. By the way, is it bad that I decided to make him a tsundere?
> 
> (In case anyone is confused by his existence in the sample chapter, the inclusion of Gargouille is one of the major changes I'm making in the story.) 
> 
> Vardøger and Eidolon Doppelgänger: The twins surname refers to a supernatural double of a living person often depicted as a bringer of bad luck or death. Vardøger is the Scandinavian equivalent only instead of bringing death, they are more or less the embodiment of déjà vu, where the spiritual double appears or does something in advance of the living individual. Eidolon is an apparition in Greek thought. They are the spiritual image of a person, living or dead, that projects the idea that the person exists, however, they are not actually present at all. You know, with ominous names like theirs, I don't think they'd even need their own Varia codenames, right?

**Author's Note:**

> After reading too many HP/KHR crossover fics, I am jumping into the fray myself. I fell in love with the idea that Harry is a Cloud (or at least a Cloudy Sky in some) and became the Varia’s Cloud Officer some way or another. Another reason for why I want to write this story is because I also want to try my hands at bashing. Up until now, I’ve kept my views on various franchises pretty neutral but this time, I want to try this method out and see how it goes for me.
> 
> Let me just warn you right now before you read any further! I am planning on writing Harry out as an agendered person romantically involved with a man. Since the theme I created for him is “not giving a fuck”, things like socially constructed expectations on gender and sexuality wouldn’t matter to him. To be honest, I’m not too well-versed in this subject, so I’ll be researching heavily on this topic as I continue with this fic. While I’m doing that, please feel free to give me feedback on how I’m doing in portraying Harry this way. And don’t hesitate to call me out if I’m doing something wrong! 
> 
> Thank you all for reading~! Reviews, favorites, and follows give me life~! ໒( ͡ᵔ U ͡ᵔ )७


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